2019 12 Louise Nevelson Goes to the Dentist

Louise Nevelson Goes to the Dentist

In the previous two posts, I walked you through the May, 2019, Shake Rag Alley workshop with Andrea Matus deMeng called Altar Ego and showed you two of the masks that I made.

Here is the third piece to come out of that workshop...but first, some art history.

From Wikipedia:

"Louise Nevelson (September 23, 1899 – April 17, 1988) was an American sculptor known for her monumental, monochromatic, wooden wall pieces and outdoor sculptures...Nevelson experimented with early conceptual art using found objects, and dabbled in painting and printing before dedicating her lifework to sculpture. Usually created out of wood, her sculptures appear puzzle-like, with multiple intricately cut pieces placed into wall sculptures or independently standing pieces, often 3-D. One unique feature of her work is that her figures are often painted in monochromatic black or white."

So, hopefully, now you have all the information you need to get the punchline.

I did not get much done on this piece during the Altered Egos workshop.

After Shake Rag, I carried this with me to Make What Ya Brung but basically spent the time working on by moving stuff around to no apparent purpose. 

When I decided to work on this at home, I went in a completely assemblage direction. 

After attaching all the objects I decided to go with a black gesso undercoat. 

It was at this point that I thought, what if I left the teeth as the only white thing? Funny, ja?

Once I painted it that way, I said to myself, "It looks like Louise Nevelson At the Dentist?" Funny, ja?

Wait a minute, that is funny, ja?

And thus we have, Louise Nevelson Goes to the Dentist. I am hoping she would find this very funny, jah?

Louise Nevelson Goes to the Dentist hung at the Wisconsin Museum of Art during the Annual Member Exhibition, July to August, 2019.