zombie girlfriends

I’ve posted them here at my facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=41540&l=491ee&id=654068059

The zombie girlfriends are an odd bunch of paintings. Lately, I’ve been painting in sets. I’m exploring an idea more thoroughly this way. And sometimes just painting one at a time is boring.

I also like to paint in sets when I’m using masking fluid, which I hate. It stinks and it ruins my brushes.

With masking fluid, I can reserve a place for the lady and make her “habitat” first. These zombie girlfriend habitats have only two colors: a bright transparent red and ash blue gouache, an opaque watercolor to jump out and create some depth and an immediate, possibly menacing backdrop. 

 I used photos of models who were posing with various power tools. I thought the original photos were ridiculous, bikini-clad babes showing off fancy saws and hammers–but the women were so pretty. The photos must have been from a calendar or something. I took the ladies out of their ridiculous context and put them in another, a place where they’re not supposed to be sexy–unless you’re into rotting flesh–no matter how comely. 

I used a lot of white from the paper and just indigo, cerulean and winsor violet for cool skin colors.

Mostly they’re just for fun. But I might be saying something about the objectification of women in these paintings. The women are still objects; they’ve just been made into objects by their zombification. 

Is that a word?