Julien Picaud

These collages by Julien Picaud, remind me of the first collages that wiped me out. They were in a magazine called Bizarre and I found them in the deep recesses of the university library. They are also familiar to the work on the Monty Python Flying Food Circus. I love the use of a flat background as if 2 and 3 dimensional worlds lived beside each other. And the notion of story telling that in this surreal world have no beginning or end but exist in some kind of eternal anticipation.

Ella Fitzgerald Version 2

My second choice for an illustration for a piece on Ella Fitzgerald.

Billie Holiday 3rd version

The third version of my Billie Holiday piece

Madonna With Martin Bormann

The whole ‘Madonna’ series of paintings in Christian art has been fascinating. She is at the core of what it means to be human. And what it means to be good. She gave birth to the Christ. What if it  had been Martin Bormann, Hitler’s secretary?

Edith Wright and Jo Stafford together

Two great jazz singers, Jo Stafford and Edith Wright, melded into one voice.

A naked woman tries to prevent Lee Harvey Oswald from being assassinated outside the Cotton Club

This is the longest title I have ever used. And it is one of the most absurd of historical fictions. And yet. Is it possible in some other dimension? In some other possible universe? The image itself might well spin out an entire novel. In the viewer.

Savannah Churchill 2nd version

This is the second version of the Savannah Churchill piece.

Betty Hutton 2nd version

This is the alternate version for the Betty Hutton piece I created.

Ethel Waters version 2

This is the back up illustration for my Ethel Waters piece.

Hitler pursues a woman through the wet evening.

There are 2 iconic figures that I believe will survive the 20th century. They are Marilyn Monroe and Adolf  Hitler. It is not good versus evil. They are both mysteries. One is beauty, but beauty blemished by strange demons. The other is blindness, eyes burned out by obsession.