Oola

Images in this series are digitally printed on watercolor paper with pigment inks.  Most of them are 35" x 46".

Artist Statement: Oola

Years ago I made a small doll out of scraps -- a doll which I recently I scanned and digitally edited into art historical contexts. When someone asked me “Where are you in art history?” I understood the question's meaning but thought it an odd thing to ponder.

Playing the doll, Oola, as an alter-ego, I tried out different periods of western art history. I began by 
making fun of images that were outside my aesthetic. But then, with a sense of shock when 
people responded to my work with laughter, I began to feel protective of my alter-ego/doll.

I began thinking about her as a representative of humans in my society who do not meet the
 norms of beauty/acceptability. I began thinking about putting my doll in a variety of art historical contexts that reflect a variety of cultural norms about beauty and acceptability, especially for women. I discovered that working Oola into images created by male artist was most often very different from working within images by female artists. 
In one piece in this portfolio, Oola the doll tries on the persona of the Empress Theodora, surrounded by hints of intrigue, moral compassing, and war. In another she relaxes in the mode of Susan Valadon’s odalesque.

I hope that the viewer will respond by asking questions. What is the meaning of that ugly, bucktoothed little doll? What does humor have to do with art? What right does an artist have to appropriate images? What about the ethics of lying with the camera and computer?

In case you were wondering about the image based on Botticelli's paintings of Boccaccio's story from The Decameron, here it is in a much compressed  and distressed form.

Nastagio had riches, but could not command the love of the daughter of Signior Paulo Traversario.  He wasted a good part of his fortune on her, but she did not love him. 

He fell into a depression and his friends convinced him to leave the city, and he rode away with some of them to one of his country estates where he had tents erected and invited those friends to come back and stay with him whenever they wished.

In the beginning of May he walked alone and without his servants in the pine grove thinking of his love.  Suddenly he heard and saw a young woman crying, torn by brambles and chased by two fierce hounds and a cursing knight on horseback.  Nastagio lifted a stick to defend the woman when the knight  told him this:

I loved this woman and she refused me.  I killed myself with this sword, and she, unrepentant of her scorn and dying soon afterwards, was sent to the same place of punishment as I.  Three judges condemned us so that I must chase her, kill her and feed her heart to the dogs.  After which she comes alive again, and we repeat this terrible chase on the next day.

Nastagio heard this story with terror, but began working a plan.  He invited Signior Paulo Traversario's family, including his unrequited love, Oola, to a magnificent dinner in the pine grove at his country estate , and also many of his own friends.  As he expected, during this great feast the scene with the naked maiden, the cruel dogs and the armed knight was repeated. 

The knight recounted his story to all assembled and slew the maiden.

Whereupon the trembling Oola, daughter of Signior Paulo Traversario. said that she was willing to become the bride of Nastagio.  And they lived happily ever after --  mostly.  All the other young women of the city grew kinder and more attentive to the wishes of the young men of the city.