This portrait is of Eugene O'Neill and is my newest painting. It was initially conceived to be part of a group of paintings about New London that will be on exhibition in March 2011. Currently it is part of a tribute to O'Neill on the Drunken Boat website (issue 12) called "Celtic Twilight" www.drunkenboat.com/db12/. I took several images as the painting progressed and wanted to include them as well as the finished painting.
Here is the statement used for the website and explains my intent for this image.
In this Portrait of Eugene O'Neill, I wanted to convey the idea of duality. In theatre, this duality is symbolized by the Comedy/Tragedy masks of ancient Greece, and in choosing O'Neill, one the nation's most beloved writers and himself a symbol of theatre, this idea of duality now becomes in part, a reinterpretation of those masks. The image of two opposing emotions transposed one atop the other generates a sense of discomfort and uncertainty in the viewer and in many ways will challenge people's preconceived notions of that symbol, our own duality, and how we want to imagine Eugene O'Neill to be. (The smile, by the way, is his own.) Continue to see the painting develop.
