Description
Check out all 3 pieces in my Bowie Collection!
What can be said about David Bowie that hasn't already been said? He and his music have had a huge impact and influence on my life, in many ways, but particularly visually/artistically, in addition to the obvious influences on my own music. One of the staples of my art is to fuse two images into one using colors, shapes, and silhouettes. For my Bowie piece, the hardest thing to do was to narrow it down to just two, but I was sure I wanted to combine early Bowie with later Bowie. I ended up painting him using a reference photo taken later in his life, but then created my version of the iconic lightning bolt from his early 1970s Aladdin Sane period, and purposely utilized only colors used in his makeup on that iconic cover. To add a third element, I named the piece after a line from "Changes," the opening track on Hunky Dory, probably my favorite Bowie album. I like to think Bowie hasn't died, he just *changed* forms, as he has done countless times ... only, this time, into a form we can't physically see, but will always continue to feel.
For the longest time, there was only one variant of my Bowie portrait (here it is). But every time I looked at it, I thought of two things: floating head and red background. But it wasn't that I wanted to change the original ... it was a classic case of needing more options. I mean, why have just one variant of David Bowie when you can have two? Why not give people choices? The simple change from dark blue to red in the background makes a huge difference, but to further differentiate from the original, it needed a little more. I have always had an affinity for the "floating head" aesthetic used heavily in print advertising in the 1940s-1960s. I don't know why, but I think it's just because it's playful and fun. So I went for it; I removed Bowie's neck, shoulders, and torso (sorry, buddy), and I think it makes for a cool, streamlined, minimal look that makes a good alternative (or companion) to my original "Turn and Face the Strange."
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