The Bovine Portraits in Hexidecimal Hue are a series of monochromatic oil paintings of cows. The work explores themes of existentialism, portraiture and the impact of the digital on visual experience. Based on my own photographs, each painting begins with a digitally manipulated "head shot", the hue for which is chosen from the 216 colors of the basic Web palette. The facial "expressions" implied by the anatomical idiosyncrasies of these subjects evoke a wide range of human emotions such as fear, tenderness and vulnerability, even anger. But the body of work is intended to be humorous as well-a little joke about the history of portraiture, which is largely a tale of the very rich immortalized in self-important displays of wealth and power. In creating these works, I have elevated cattle, a traditional symbol of that wealth, to this same stature.

Since embarking upon the project in early 2003, I have completed over 50 Bovine Portraits. Inspirations include my husband's late uncle, a life-long farmer named Harold Haldeman, whose bovine beauties were my very first models. I was further inspired after a visit to Farm Sanctuary in Watkins Glen, NY in 2005. It was there that I met the 27-year-old bovine matriarch Dolly as well as Queenie, a feisty old cow that had escaped from a slaughterhouse in Queens leading the police and animal control officials on a wild chase through the streets of that borough. After the incident Queenie was permanently furloughed to Farm Sanctuary.

Lust For Life
Lust 4 Life is a series large-scale oil paintings of flowers. Specifically Gerber Daisies, Orchids and Cala Lilies-bold, hearty and physically substantial subjects purchased at flower stalls throughout Lower Manhattan. I take photographs of the flowers which I digitally enhance, adjusting the saturation and levels to create a hyper-real, death defying palette of brilliant color and high contrast, thus creating a point of reference that is static and altered to my design.

The profound sensual and emotional potency of color and the paint itself, high graphic drama and the tension at the canvas' edge are central to my vision. The subjects are addressed in the form of monolithic portraits, either isolated on moody solid colored background or cropped claustrophobically so the image reaches out of the confines of the rectangle. Stylistically, the paintings are influenced in equal parts by Edouard Manet, Andy Warhol and the gigantic billboard advertisements that shroud the buildings along Houston Street. The choice of flowers, Cala Lilies and Gerber Daisies in particular, reflects my experience of the vivid, invigorating and sometimes overwhelming world of New York City. It is a high-energy, demanding environment that elicits that unmistakable "New York Attitude" from it's residents. Composed in equal parts of ambition, persistence, exuberance and, most of all, resilience, this condition is poignantly represented by the daisies as they burst forth from the confines of the canvases. The emotional temperature of these pictures is unmistakable: hyper, pushy, hungry, but smart too.

Afterword
This body of work began with the orchid pictures in the relatively tranquil summer of 2001. After the events of September 11, it was unclear to me how I would ever feel the sense of wonder and enthusiasm described above. I gradually started painting again but my subject matter was confined to the Cala Lilies whose stoic beauty evoked mourning at first, and then hope and stamina. By late 2002, I was painting the Gerber Daisies when some sense of joie de vie, if not equilibrium exactly, was restored to Manhattan and to my own life.


Attraction, Repulsion and Scrutiny: Flies and Snout by Edie Nadelhaft

scru - ti - ny noun, plural -nies.
1. a searching examination or investigation; minute inquiry.
2. surveillance; close and continuous watching or guarding.
3. a close and searching look.

My current work is an exercise in scrutiny. The imagery is taken from the natural world and distorted through photography and digital manipulation. The scale is altered and the perspective changes from close to extreme close-up as the subject evolves from a cow's face to a detail of that face culminating in a portrait of a greatly enlarged creature found roaming the landscape of the cow's furry hide. My expectation is that dissection and magnification will ultimately lead to simplification and clarity. The reality is more like playing with Russian nesting dolls: further investigation reveals the same or an even greater level of complexity - a tiny universe within.

Conflicting impulses and dissociation are of particular interest to me. Subjects that appear on the surface to be one thing but after further consideration suggest something entirely at odds with the first impression. Flies, for instance, are tiny and relatively harmless, yet they are associated (quite rightly) with garbage, excrement and death. An extremely close look reveals delicate, opalescent wings and a broad range of color and texture in the body. The extreme distortion of scale in the paintings renders them monstrous while bringing the beauty of the creature into sharp focus.

In my process as well as my product, I try and strike a balance between fine control and painterly chaos that allows the paint itself to be the real subject of my work. It is the vibrancy and emotional potency of paint and color that makes art exciting and invigorating at its core.