About 20 or so years ago I started painting. That was squarely in the Post Modern era, and as a painter of realism I was out of step with the abstract thrust of the period. Many art scholars have begun to describe these interesting times as the Post Truth era, and as such, a focus in realism has resurfaced. The term Post Truth has lots of complexity, but I tend to think of it as this: people used to have their own opinions … now people also have their own facts.
When I started work on Queen Santa almost a year ago I was processing the composition as Post Truth Realism. But I really had no idea how the forces of our era would inform my work. Having always been interested in layers of meaning, the core idea was to render the work with layers of reality … interlocking, interrelated, incongruous yet somehow holding together as a unified whole. When I tried it in the past, the scholars and masters with whom I studied said this was a uniquely bad idea. Guess we will see how it works out.
In this piece, the Queen is rendered with exaggerated color in an energetic style, based on an official photo from her later years. She resides in a golden space, the spirit world. She is contained within the materialism of the Stewart plaid border, and also rises above it as she did in life. Her beloved Corgi, expressing her accessible, playful side is rendered in an anime style, existing in both the spirit and material layers. Consistent with the Santa Knows series construct, we have a Santa hat … but it seemed more respectful to put it on the dog instead of the Queen. The royal medals, of course, are painted realistically and inhabit only the material plane. The artist signature, lower right, is the Cloud Atlas comet I’ve been using for a few years now.
So here she is …. last year’s Santa. After the Thanksgiving holiday, I’ll start on Santa Knows 2023. ‘Good Lord willing and the Creeks don’t rise’, it will be ready by Christmas of This year!
