So EXCITED I Can Hardly Stand it!

I was AMAZED this morning to receive an email from the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam asking me if I would be willing to be a part of an exhibit for their permanent collection. 

My first thought was that this some kind of weird but intriguing spam.

Well, it was not spam! I guess The Van Gogh Museum conducted worldwide image searches and stumbled upon my photo (above) that I had posted on my personal blog in October 2012. The museum has formally asked my permission to use the image as a video still as part of a display. 

Be still my beating heart!! 

"Yes," I immediately responded, "and please give me the date of the opening because I want to attend!"  To say the least I am thrilled and honored to even somehow be connected one of the most important and beloved artist in the world, even in such a small way. 

(The following is the blog post that the museum found)

I dressed up as Vincent Van Gogh for Halloween, just for my studio teaching days.

Most of the kids (not all!) diverted their eyes and seemed wary of me. Most thought I was a Hobo or creepy guy. Lot's of the grown-ups could guess, especially when I had paint brushes in my hand.

If you are interested in Vincent, you've GOT to read Van Gogh, The Life. It's the newest most thorough research on Vincent, his family, and his death. It's 860 pages, and written by the dynamic team of Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith, who also wrote the Pulitzer Prize winning Jackson Pollock. It's a hard read, mostly because Vincent, from a very early age, had an extremely painful life. Physically it's challenging because the book is so big and heavy on your abdomen that you can only read so much in bed.

So Much Life!

I'm so proud and delighted with the results of this latest project! We "built" these Bones to Blossom multi-media assemblages layer-by-layer and the results are vibrant and complex. 

We started with the B&W images of Leonardo Di Caprio, Nelson Mandela, Toni Morrison, Ashley Judd, Jane Goodall, and a girl named Josie. Each artist transformed each portrait in completely unique way.

We studied the anatomy of the human skull, used acrylic paint & permanent markers to create the skeleton mask. The next step was to create a dynamic dimension in the background. We imagined that the figure lived somewhere between the living world and the after world! That dimension was created using acrylic paints applied in multiple layers with the use of cool stencils. The final step was to create a crown using collage. Wonderful papers, botanicals, jewels & flowers combined to contrast the idea of life and death. We coated the entire piece with Mod Podge then added a little *bling* using jewels and fake flowers.

 Look more closely by clicking on an image and enjoy the beauty, color and textures!