This portrait, also done for the Rourke Art Museum, Midwestern Invitational, was based on the theme, “Daughters and Sons of Art History”. I believe we were supposed to appropriate our favorite work of art and include ourselves into it. I chose my favorite… The painting is based on a 1912 Gustav Klimt portrait of Mada Premavesi that hangs in the Metropolitan Museum, New York City. Mada Premavesi was the daughter of a financial backer who bankrolled Klimt and his Wiener Werkstätte (a collective of artists, architects and craftsmen in Vienna, Austria) at the time.

My interpretation of the piece imagines her holding a large paint brush in front, as a spear. Is the paintbrush my weapon of choice? The image of a bearded man in a white dress may be strange, but I see it as the next stage in the evolution of some of my other previous “little girl/white dress” paintings. The background and choice of color were faithfully rendered as best as possible.