Mugging for the Camera

When I was in college, my painting instructors gave me a hard time about wanting to paint something from a photograph -- and it wasn't MY photograph. I thought they were being difficult and I thought I could overcome the obstacle and make a great painting anyway. It took several years before I realized what they were really talking about. It goes WAY beyond the issue of copying someone else's work. It has to do with relevance. In other words, MY ability to relate to something I hadn't seen. How can you have an emotional response, really have something to say about a thing you've never seen or a place you've never been? The answer is simple: you really can't.  I finally got that.

"Mogollon Mugs"

"Mogollon Mugs" (Mogollon is pronounced muggy-own) was a big challenge because I've never actually seen the mask faces at Hueco Tanks, where masks similar to these are painted inside a cave, where they have been protected from the elements for hundreds of years.

I WANT to see them, I just haven't had the opportunity yet. So why DID I decide to paint THESE "mugs?"   I felt an instant connection - maybe through humor and a continuity of human experience - when I saw photos of them. They are so much fun, they gave me an appreciation for the human-ness of the Mogollon people who painted them in that cave.

And I set an even bigger challenge for myself by trying to combine a semi-realistic painting with the "quilt block" collage technique. It sure wasn't easy. I wanted to convey rhythm and a sense of fun. The black-on-white patterns mimic ancient Mimbres Mogollon ceramics, setting up a frenzied rhythm. The primary palette I chose for the masks is simple and fun. And stacking the masks in a totem arrangement, I think, strengthens the whole idea.

Inspiration:  pictograph images that transcend time, speaking to us today about our connection with people of another time.