Symbolism and the finished “Not #MeToo: No More Casting Couch” painting
It’s finally time to sign my Not #MeToo painting! It seems as if I have been working on this piece forever.
I paint my logo before adding my name to the signature.
I designed my logo some time ago when I was inspired by looking at a Circle K convenience store sign.
Here is the finished, professionally photographed image of my Not #MeToo: No More Casting Couch painting. I am fortunate to be friends with former SPC adjunct photography professor Frank Duffy, who came in especially to shoot my painting for me. He knows how to light such a sizeable work so that it minimizes the glare, which is a real problem with snapshots of the piece. I am a little jealous that Frank is retired and just gets to work on his art, but I am so thankful that he takes the time to do favors like this for me!
Here I am with my painting, so you get a sense of its scale. Again, Frank was kind enough to shoot this professional photo.
If I were to win the $200,000 grand prize at Art Prize this year, I would definitely invest it toward letting me retire earlier from teaching, so I can just paint. That’s what I’ve wanted to do all along, but I have to be practical when I have a mortgage to pay and a family to support. I am grateful that I have my full-time teaching job in the meantime to help provide for us and grants like this one from Creative Pinellas to help defray the cost of doing this big project. But teaching full time and painting full time are exhausting. I don’t have any spare time for fun things, and I don’t want to miss out on life because I’m always working. I keep telling my wife that if this does not work out for me, I can just do small paintings as a hobby to please myself and not worry about whether they will sell. So far, she has been good about talking me out of doing just that, saying that my recognition and sales will come. I hope she is right!
For my figurative pieces that have a social commentary message, I usually design a symbolism sheet to explain the iconography of my paintings. While most of the message is self-evident, there are some viewers who like having an artist’s message spelled out for them. Verbal, rather than visual learners, appreciate that I take the time to do this.
Here is a snapshot of Alexandra’s completed head. Her blonde hair was especially challenging to paint.
A snapshot of Harvey Weinstein’s bust shows that he has a big, meaty head.
Madeline’s head reminds me of old movies of the Egyptian queen Cleopatra, because of her carefully angled hair cut.
What do you think of the work, now that the painting phase is done? I’d love to read your comments on my Facebook or Twitter pages. Next, check back with how I go about framing this piece, since I cannot afford to buy prefabricated frame molding.
To see my entire portfolio of paintings, please check out www.kevingrass.art! You can purchase original paintings and fine art print reproductions directly from my website.
Here is a link to my personal Facebook page: Kevin Grass private FB page and here is one to my business Facebook page: Kevin Grass Fine Art business FB page. Here, you can find me on Twitter: Fineartfan, Kevin Grass’s Twitter handle.
Blog post 17 of 22
