The Afterbirth of Venus-(Venus on the Quarter Shell)

This is an early work based on the Botticelli “Birth of Venus”.  It is painted on an old plastic tabletop that has real mother-of-pearl chips and leaves embedded inside it. I painted it in the grayed tones in which one always seems to see it reproduced. But the Venus herself seems a little warped. The reason is that she is being made to fit into a version of the leading coin of our realm, the quarter, with its portrait of Mr. Washington. The title refers to the way our notion of beauty is warped by being seen through the lens of American materialism.

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