Black BikiniDana

One of the first canvases in this series. There was no idea behind it, and I am not going to pretend there was.

there was no idea.

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.

What do you do with it?

Inspired by a photograph of Dana Hamm (@danahammofficial). What the painting makes of it is my doing, not hers. Part of Painted Idols.

The photograph this came from was made to be forgotten. This canvas was not. It took weeks, and it will hang on a wall for years.

Ordering takes a minute. Deciding where it goes is the part that takes nerve, because everyone who walks into that room will see it and decide something about you. That is the real decision, and it is yours. The ones who own these stop noticing the reaction after about a month, and never stop noticing the painting. Hang it anyway.

There is one of this canvas and there will never be a second. If you have read this far, you are already picturing the wall.