I just found this wonderful portrait by Kimberly Brooks at the artist's website. Several or possible all of the images are based upon photography: as the artist explains, "During my last show, "Mom's Friends," about my mother and her friends in the 70s, I foraged through old family albums and found page after delicious page of distorted photos that to me signified nothing less than the new born freedom of a generation redefining itself."
I feel some connection to this topic myself, which Brooks addresses in an interview with photographer Stefanie Schneider. Like these artists, I've also based several of my paintings on old photographs, turning them into reveries of a different sort. The photos I used go back a little farther than Brooks. Some are from the 1940s and one noteable photograph goes back to 1957.
Meanwhile, Brooks's Portrait of Liz has a wonderful angularity about it that is intriguing both formally and psychologically. The tilt of the sitter's head seems to engage us with energy and pique.
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