The women in Painted Idols
One canvas each: the four subjects I painted only once
6 min read ▪ 30 August 2026
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Four subjects held for exactly one painting. One of those four is where the whole series started, which is a strange thing to find at the thin end of a collection.
Which subjects in Painted Idols were painted only once?
Dana Hamm, Dakota James, Kindly Myers and Marisol Yotta. One canvas each, no prints, and the original is the only version of any of them that exists. Painting somebody once is not a smaller result than painting her four times. It means the image was dealt with, and one of these four is where the series began.
- Four originals, oil on stretched canvas, three at 120 × 80 cm and one at 100 × 80 cm.
- No prints of any of them. The canvases are the only versions that exist.
- Dana (Black Bikini) is one of the first, and everything since came out of it.
Four subjects, one canvas each
Twenty-three canvases, fourteen women. Some of them held for four paintings. Four of them held for exactly one, and this is what happened in each of those.
| Subject | The canvas | Size | Prints |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dana Hamm | Dana (Black Bikini) | 120 × 80 cm | none |
| Kindly Myers | Kindly (On Gold) | 120 × 80 cm | none |
| Dakota James | Dakota (Pink Bikini) | 120 × 80 cm | none |
| Marisol Yotta | Marisol (Bubblegum) | 100 × 80 cm | none |
All four are oil on stretched canvas, signed, one of one, with a certificate of authenticity. None of them is a print and none of them will become one.
Dana (Black Bikini): where the series begins
One of the first ones. There was no idea behind this canvas, and I am not going to pretend there was.
At that point I was still working out what I actually wanted to look at for weeks on end. Not what would sell, not what it meant. Just which images kept me at an easel and which ones let go after two days. This one held.
Everything since has come out of that question, so this is where the series begins even though it looks like it belongs somewhere in the middle. That is why a canvas with a single painting behind it is the most important object on this page: not because it is the best one, but because the entire method was worked out on it. Dana Hamm has one painting and the series has her fingerprints all over it.
Kindly (On Gold): the one that does not perform
Almost every image I save is aimed outward. Made to be seen, and good at it. That is the premise of the whole series.
Kindly (On Gold) is the exception. It is turned in on itself, and I am still not entirely sure I was meant to be looking. Whatever is happening is happening on the inside, and it is not mild. That is what kept me at it for weeks: not the surface of the image, but the fact that it does not perform.
One canvas was enough because the thing I was after was in that one image and nowhere else. There was no second picture of the same kind to go back to. Kindly Myers is the page for this one.
Dakota (Pink Bikini): the size is the argument
There is a detail in her face that I saw before I saw anything else, and for a while it was the only thing I could see. That is why this canvas exists.
Dakota (Pink Bikini) is also one of the largest paintings I have made, which matters more than it sounds. At full size the angle does something to you that a photograph of the painting cannot reproduce. You have to be in front of it.
That is an awkward thing to write on a website, where everything you are looking at is a photograph of a painting. It is also the truest sentence about this particular canvas, so it stays. Dakota James is the page for it.
Marisol (Bubblegum): two things that will not settle
There is a child’s gesture in this picture and nothing else about it is childlike.
The two refuse to sit together. I painted Marisol (Bubblegum) to find out which one wins, and after several weeks neither had. If anything, the small playful thing makes the rest stranger rather than softer, which is the opposite of what I expected when I started.
A painting that does not resolve is not a failed painting. It is a painting that holds two things at once, which is one of the few jobs an object is better at than a picture. Marisol Yotta is the page for it.
Why once is not less
Painting someone twice is not a promotion, and painting her once is not a lesser result.
A canvas stops when I am finished with it, not when it is. The image has been dealt with, it no longer pulls at me, and I go on to the next one. With most subjects that happens once. With Riae it happened four times, because the archive still had more of her in it and the pull came back — and what four canvases of one woman made visible is a different article about a different situation.
These four settled in one. Dana held long enough to build a method on. Kindly had one image of that kind and no second. Dakota needed a size rather than a sequence. Marisol was a question that stayed open and stayed open at full scale.
One practical consequence: none of these has a companion piece, so nothing is missing when you buy one. And this list describes the state of the studio now rather than a category. If a second canvas of one of these subjects ever turns up, she moves to the other article and this one gets shorter.
Where to see them
Each subject has a page with her name on it, the source photograph credited, and the work shown at size: Dana Hamm, Kindly Myers, Dakota James and Marisol Yotta.
The full index of everybody in the series is the women in Painted Idols, and all the paintings sit in one place. What each of these women is written to about, and what that does and does not settle, is in do the women know.
Questions people ask
Which subjects in Painted Idols were painted only once?
Dana Hamm, Dakota James, Kindly Myers and Marisol Yotta. One canvas each, oil on stretched canvas, signed and one of one. Three are 120 x 80 cm and one is 100 x 80 cm.
Are there prints of these four paintings?
No. Signed prints exist of other works in the series, but not of these. The originals are the only versions of them that exist.
Does painting someone once mean the painting is less important?
No. A canvas stops when the painter is finished with it, and with most subjects that happens once. Dana (Black Bikini) is one of the first paintings in the series and the one everything since came out of.
Which painting did the series start with?
Dana (Black Bikini). There was no idea behind it, and at that point the question was simply which images kept the painter at an easel and which let go after two days. That one held, and the method came out of it.
