The Stalker's Daughter
"The Stalker's Daughter", 2017, acrylic on panel, 11.5" x 15"
This was the first of the Re. Rainbow Girl project paintings that I started, but I set it aside and it was among the last that I finished.
With this painting the artist that comes to mind is Caravaggio, but the clearest parallel in his work seems to be–at least as far as the gesture of the head–his painting "Sacrifice of Isaac”. But, while there is a similarity to the position of the head of the terrified Isaac, the notion of sacrifice seems problematic. A clearer connection for me is to the 20th c. Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky. The title of the painting alludes to Tarkovsky’s film “Stalker”, specifically to the daughter of the main character, the “Stalker”: a man who is a kind of guide who leads people into a place called “the Zone” where, supposedly, their greatest desire will be realized. The Stalker’s daughter is disabled, and apparently a minor character in the film. That apparent marginality of her role (and implicitly her place in the world) is put into question by the final scene of the film. In that scene, from across a tabletop we see her sitting alone at a table,
reciting the poem "I Love Your Dear Eyes..." by Fedor Tyutchev:
I love your dear eyes, my friend,
With their play so bright and wondrous,
When you promptly rise them, and,
Like with a lightning in the wildness,
Embrace at once the whole land.
But there's more fabulous attraction:
The eyes directed to the floor
During the crazy osculation,
And through the lashes, set before,
The dusk and gloomy flame of passion.
Upon finishing the poem, she turns her head towards the camera and unexpectedly directs the cups on the table to slide towards us across the table. When the third cup reaches the
edge of the table, it falls to the floor, and the Stalker’s daughter puts her head on the table as a train passing in close proximity (joined by strains of Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy”) shakes the room.
Via that final scene of "Stalker" I’m reminded of another painting by Caravaggio: the "Supper at Emmaus". In that painting we view–similarly, from across a table–another revelational event:
the moment the true identity of the host becomes evident. All that said: while Temma’s head in my painting echoes the position of the head of the Stalker’s daughter and while the light on
her hair and the side of her face seem uttery revelatory, in the painting Temma’s face falls into obscurity in dark shadow. The painting tilts back towards mystery.
The Stalker's Daughter
"The Stalker's Daughter", 2017, acrylic on panel, 11.5" x 15"
This was the first of the Re. Rainbow Girl project paintings that I started, but I set it aside and it was among the last that I finished.
With this painting the artist that comes to mind is Caravaggio, but the clearest parallel in his work seems to be–at least as far as the gesture of the head–his painting "Sacrifice of Isaac”. But, while there is a similarity to the position of the head of the terrified Isaac, the notion of sacrifice seems problematic. A clearer connection for me is to the 20th c. Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky. The title of the painting alludes to Tarkovsky’s film “Stalker”, specifically to the daughter of the main character, the “Stalker”: a man who is a kind of guide who leads people into a place called “the Zone” where, supposedly, their greatest desire will be realized. The Stalker’s daughter is disabled, and apparently a minor character in the film. That apparent marginality of her role (and implicitly her place in the world) is put into question by the final scene of the film. In that scene, from across a tabletop we see her sitting alone at a table,
reciting the poem "I Love Your Dear Eyes..." by Fedor Tyutchev:
I love your dear eyes, my friend,
With their play so bright and wondrous,
When you promptly rise them, and,
Like with a lightning in the wildness,
Embrace at once the whole land.
But there's more fabulous attraction:
The eyes directed to the floor
During the crazy osculation,
And through the lashes, set before,
The dusk and gloomy flame of passion.
Upon finishing the poem, she turns her head towards the camera and unexpectedly directs the cups on the table to slide towards us across the table. When the third cup reaches the
edge of the table, it falls to the floor, and the Stalker’s daughter puts her head on the table as a train passing in close proximity (joined by strains of Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy”) shakes the room.
Via that final scene of "Stalker" I’m reminded of another painting by Caravaggio: the "Supper at Emmaus". In that painting we view–similarly, from across a table–another revelational event:
the moment the true identity of the host becomes evident. All that said: while Temma’s head in my painting echoes the position of the head of the Stalker’s daughter and while the light on
her hair and the side of her face seem uttery revelatory, in the painting Temma’s face falls into obscurity in dark shadow. The painting tilts back towards mystery.