The First Veil

The First Veil
Digital painting 2007

Lightbox enlargement

I’ve wanted to get back to working on a Women of Myth series, having already done Salome and Eve, and this is in that direction, influenced by memories of foreign movies of the 60s through the early 80s I’d seen when cinema screens were still large and magical and sound quality hadn’t gone to hell. A door was not just a door. Every room was a world unto itself and every person was the dust of myth, the conflict ‘tween gods and mortals, revivified with the stuff of the film development process, ancient spirits condescending to lend their life to film in vanity-pleasing anticipation of again holding supersized center stage. At least that’s how I thought of it all at the time and have always appreciated Jean-Luc Godard’s works in respect of this, and in particular his Le Mépris which I must get a good copy of one of these days. In so many of his movies the blood looks like ketchup and the scenes look like sets because they are supposed to, and if you’re familiar with the Catholic vs. Protestant notion of the eucharist and transubstantiation (I was raised Catholic a few years there as a child) this is what happens in his films. He presents you the plain flour and salt of the set and as the film rolls, though you still see in front of you the everyday flour and salt, a change of substance occurs. I was thinking of this when I did the painting.

Detail of “The First Veil”.

[clear]

I used a stock photo from Lady Belar at Deviantart as reference for the model. Here’s the original photo of her which is very nice.

Note: Bush’s stuttering weasel voice is running on the news (PBS) in the background talking about how optimistic he is about immigration reform. How he became Evil Incarnate instead of just another buffoon down at the bar, sucking Happy Hour margaritas down one after another, I don’t know.