AMAZONS/CEZANNES
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The works that depict Amazons, the legendary (in both senses) women warriors of ancient Greece, are filled with a mass of anachronisms. In my renditions, these Amazons have needlessly removed their right breasts (in a misguided effort to smooth the use of their bows, for I have seen to it that they are equipped with cannons, the chief weapon of mass destruction of the 19th century. They defend against some unseen foe that wanders in a landscape with vaguely Cezanne-like attributes. These Amazons have amassed minimal skills in the use of cannons: to shield their hands from the heat of the barrels they use the hems of their skirts, a move that neither provides good insulation nor maintains a modicum of modesty.
The figures are a cross-fertilization between cartoons and those oddly shaped women of certain German Expressionists. The trees, skies and rocks do their best to evoke Cezanne's wondrous formations but ultimately opt for a semi-abstraction out of mid-20th century painterly painting. Meanwhile, the busy puffs of cannon smoke suggest an amalgam of classic Chinese cloud painting and comic book cumuli. |
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From the left, clockwise: Defending Amazon, archival pigment print, collage and oil on board, 2011; Defending Amazon, Moonlight, oil over digital print, 2011; Armed Amazons in Cezanne Landscape, monoprint, 2011; Defending Amazon, Sunrise, oil over digital print, 2011
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Below: Cezanne Bathers as Amazons, monoprint, 2011
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Below: Two Amazons In the Midst of Battle, oil on canvas, 2012.
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Below: the 4-foot square Icon, isn't a depiction of an Amazon by any measure; she's more like an All-American Biker Girl. But with her heft and clear authority over the miniature bishop --and over the viewer-- she exerts an exquisite feminine power equal to that of the ancient female warriors. Let's call her an Honorary Amazon.
Icon, acrylic and pencil on raw shaped plywood with relief sections, 2005. 
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