"Nude redhead"

(oil painting on canvas, 24X36, 2007)

"I wasn't really naked. I simply didn't have any clothes on."
Josephine Baker

"What do I wear in bed? Why, Chanel No. 5, of course."
Marilyn Monroe

"In order to be irreplaceable one must always be different."
Coco Chanel

"If you obey all the rules, you miss all the fun."
Katharine Hepburn

The original concept for this piece was a psychological portrait of a young woman. When I was still a teenager I was asked by a friend of mine (also an artist) to pose for him nude. I refused citing that I would feel too uncomfortable. He told me that that was precisely the reason he wanted to paint me on the first place. I still refused, but his explanation stuck in my mind for years to come. So when I decided to work on the "Redhead" painting I wanted to portray the girl in the painting as shy and self-conscious.

However, once I actually started painting I realized that the girl in the painting was a mischievous being and wanted nothing to do with the seriousness of psychology. After all, it's hard to be serious when one has a bare bottom.