Hot Mama Print

This painting was inspired by memories of time spent at the beauty parlor with my grandmother when I was a small child. Every Saturday morning, she was the first one in the door of the turquoise tinted salon where she would spend the next two hours being shampooed, curled, brushed out, styled and shellacked. This left her with a somewhat curly, somewhat fluffy coiffure that was very much at risk in the elements of nature. The background refers in a subtle way to the notion that women who put themselves through this routine become like hothouse flowers. The popcorn box hints at the potential for transformation, but even that seems to be somewhat like forcing a flower to bloom in an artificial way. The flames indicate that things could go horribly wrong. And this woman looks like she is about to pop! The electric coil that forms her halo represents industry, science and progress--all components of the beauty business. It also gives a nod to the stereotypical domestic goddess that had been the ideal in the not so distant past. And as the neon icon at the apex of the painting reveals, this whole idea of pursuing beauty is revealed as often being in fact the pursuit of love.