THE REDEFINITION OF THE FEMININE IDEAL
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It is the intersection of plastic arts and plastic surgery. A kind of crossroads of the female body where Titian stops and technology takes over. The classical images of female beauty as defined for centuries by masters from Leonardo to Ingres give way to a redefinition of the feminine ideal as defined by TV, magazines, and the medical profession of Los Angeles.
The confrontation is brutal in concept but sensual in execution. Lush classical oil-on-canvas techniques merge with the nomenclature of medical technology, as the muses of the great masters are marked for surgery. Like topographical maps, the calligraphy of surgical markings hover as a secondary visual language, a transparent layering of redefinition though which the original definition is still read. These paintings are vivid roadmaps to a new feminine beauty, produced at will, at the behest of a knife, as graduation presents for seventeen year old girls, a notion of beauty that differs regionally --the west coast surgeon’s ideal is different from New York’s -- yet the result is an obsession of conformity. While the pursuit of medical detail is relentless and chilling in these paintings, these works retain a classical beauty and sensuality, while enduring a biting social recontextualization of form. |
Mona Lisa Redefined
48 in x 72 in Mixed Medium on Canvas 
The Three Graces Redefined
36 in x 68 in Mixed Medium on Canvas 
Venus Redefined
36 in x 68 in Mixed Medium on Canvas 
The Birth of Venus Redefined
48 in x 72 in Mixed Medium on Canvas 
Sisters Redefined
48 in x 72 in Mixed Medium on Canvas |