Artist Spotlight: Wes Hemphill: Last Part

Adam #1

Joe Mostly Recovered From the Accident, 2011 (study)

 

 Tell us more on this one.
The model, Joe M., was a student at the University of Arizona in Tucson, where Jack and I spend winters. He’d recently been in an accident, the nature of which I should leave to him to disclose. I thought this image conveyed something of his climbing out of that circumstance and of his natural beauty, which, as the viewer can see, remains intact

Hardly Boys: Still Waters (#511), 2010, a collaboration between Wes Hempel and Jack Balas

 

How About Now? (study)

Camping on Vermeer. Tell us more on this.
I was initially drawn to the Vermeer interior because of the extraordinary quality of light. But I’m also playing around with the contemporary painter George Deem’s campy idea of How to Paint a Vermeer (title of a book of his paintings). So the piece may be humorous on various levels. And yet I think there’s a poignancy lurking underneath that has to do with the portrait on the wall (the same person as a boy?) and the way the young man presents himself now.

Decision, 2011

So what is the decision here, and can you talk about the pre-Raphealite influences?
The female figures are taken from Maxfield Parrish’s 1912 illustration for the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale. In the original story, the prince kisses Sleeping Beauty and awakens her from her trance. But this particular “prince” (our model Sye), having arrived late on the scene, seems to have trouble making up his mind what to do next. A decision seems to be in order, but it’s left to the viewer to imagine what is going through the young man’s mind as he squints into the distance, clenching his hands.

 

A very long day

It has been a very long day with classes today, and than the mountain of homework so no real news here. You throw in the 4 hour nap this afternoon I had to have, and well you see why this post is so late today. I think my warning sign for a "crash day" as I call them is going  to be extremely bad chest pain. The last few times where I have had the "exhausted days" I wake up with extreme chest pain, the type where your ribs just throb in agony all day.  So from here on out, I am going to listen to that pain and get my rest and as much of it as I need.

May today there be peace within.

May you trust G-d that you are exactly where you are meant to be.

May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith.

May you use those gifts that you have received, and pass on the love that has been given to you.

May you be content knowing you are a child of G-d..

Let this presence settle into your bones, and allow your soul the freedom to sing,

Dance, praise and love..

It is there for each and every one of us.