"Grand Amour" acrylic on silver leafed canvas. First and foremost this is homage to Dita Von Teese, a woman who reclaimed the Golden Era of Hollywood. I love her rebellion of taking time backwards similar to what I'm doing with this series. I have photographed her a few times while also seeing her perform. It was The Cure's "Lullaby" when she came out in an elaborate Asian flair costume that gave me chills: she is a work of art. I came across her through the author Paulo Coelho who wrote The Alchemist (a book I read leaving Alabama). Recently, I had finished "Mans Search For Meaning" by Viktor E. Frankl and "great love" was on my mind. As I channeled some of my favorite bleeding hearts such as Springsteen,Young, Cohen, and Dylan; it was a random movie that's song got stuck in my head that forced this idea into action. I came across "Seeking a Friend for the End of the World" a cute comedy about love and love for music. The next day I awoke to a song from the movie: "This Guy is in Love with You" by Herb Alpert. I couldn't get it out of my head til this beauty came to life. It brought great love to this piece and great love for me. So I named her what I want to put out to this universe. Dita Von Teese is a woman I admire for I once used her as example in a heated debate about feminism defending my love for shooting boudoir as a business. I think being a beautiful woman is about loving yourself and feeling beautiful about yourself. I think the whole corsets and old classy lingerie attire is lovely for any body type but to photograph this or paint it is teaching women how to look and feel the role. In doing so I think Dita Von Teese was a rebel with an idea that brought back a classier side to sex appeal and why she went into my art. It took me til now to reject All social pressures society puts on a lil girl growing up to be a woman and I'm here as a painter to give a better role model in this definition of feminism we are trying to define. Cause all lil girls want after they grow up is this fairytale thus "Grand Amour"