"i Just Don't Read Like I Used To!"

This series of large portraits is titled, “I Just Don’t Read Like I Used To.” Since I tend to read electronically now, I cut text from books to create characters, authors, and others in my mixed media artworks. Most of the paintings are very large and have a lot of detail. Sometimes the connection between the image and the text is surprising. For example, my portrait of Marilyn Monroe was created with text cut from Joyce's Ulysses because she had herself photographed reading this difficult book in an attempt to portray her intellectual side. The largest piece in this series is "Possession," which measures six feet tall and four feet wide. It portrays Merlin being read to from his own book of spells by the Lady of the Lake. This seems the perfect commentary on the power of text! Since the entire surface is covered with strips of text, this project took two volumes.

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