"Elvis Judges the Bettie Page LOOK-ALIKE Contest"- small piece on canvas by Kata

Description

TITLE:
Elvis Played a Small Gig at The Bettie Page Look Alike Contest to Try and Meet the REAL Bettie Page...
Thousands of collectors across the USA, Canada, and Europe own my work.
Many celebrities also collect my work. Willie Nelson, Trisha Yearwood, Julia Roberts,
Jimmy Vaughan and Susan Sarandon are
just a few ...
small framed work of art
ARTIST'S DESCRIPTION OF PAINTING
:
=========================
A recurring theme of my rock and roll icon art work
is the brief lifespan of fame in any person's life.
Warhol said it was fifteen minutes. For Elvis- it's been quite a bit longer.
For Bettie- she still lives on as a sex icon (even though many people don't realize she joined a convent in her later years...).
Bettie was one of the first vixens to appear in American sex magazines.
She sewed her own faux leopard skin bikinis and other fetish like outfits.
In this scenario from my imagination Elvis has taken a small piano gig just because he heard Bettie
would be judging a look-alike contest in some little bar.
The point is that NONE of the women resemble Bettie at all-
but Elvis keeps turning his head around-scanning the stage for the real Bettie
P
age -
and meanwhile she is perched on top of a jute box right behind
Elvis.
She stares at him like a cat- calm and calculating and ready to strike....
The thought bubble over Elvis' head reads:...
"I WISH I'd looked at her FACE in those magazines..."
The theme of women in strip clubs fascinates me and has since my early twenties.
Around that time I was fresh out of art school and launching out on my own to become a freelance artist in Charleston, S.C.
Charleston was just beginning to renovate after barely recovering from the civil war (if you can believe that!- /it's true...)
A couple of the main streets downtown has old department stores from the mid 1800's which were still in business
but the majority of the buildings were still boarded up and in disrepair except for a few strip clubs.
While cold calling my way through the phone book to land a free lance job my eyes fell on a place named
THE COPA
.
(see last pic. for example of my work in that place. pic taken in approx 2001 of me in front of the piece which was circa 1982)
CATEGORIES OF WORK:
This
piece is category 4.
It is a small painting on gallery wrap canvas with the proper hanging apparatus on back.
It is 6" high and 6" across and 1.5" deep
1. PRIMARY ORIGINALS  These are the most time-consuming and generally the largest in scale of my works.
They are owned by hundreds of Private Individuals and many Museums worldwide.
One Primary Original work of art can take me weeks, months or even years to create.
I generally create only five to twenty pieces of this type work per year.
2. VERSIONS OF WORK These are generally the second most time-consuming and expensive of my works.
They are entirely hand-painted Versions of certain of my Primary Original Paintings
The demand for them arose when Patrons admired my previously sold PRIMARY ORIGINAL pieces and wanted
something similar but not necessarily as expensive.
They are similar to but in no way identical to the Primary Originals after which they take their inspiration.
They are also not merely a re-painting of my PRIMARY ORIGINALS because each one contains new artistic- discoveries.
For instance, I am often inspired to rework the figures settings and colors- in ways which never occurred in the PRIMARY ORIGINALS.
They become an extension- a continuation of the PRIMARY ORIGINALS from which they are inspired.
I typically spend a week, two weeks or even longer on each piece. They sometimes (but do not always) have unique frames
which I embellish with one-of-a-kind mattes and vintage objects de' art and unusual titles. They may be framed very simply -
or be painted on gallery wrap canvas which requires no frame.
I create only between ten to fifty pieces in this category of work each year.
All these pieces are ethically technically legally (and in every way) Original Paintings.
3. REPLICA ORIGINALS These are generally my least expensive category of work.
They also take me the least amount of time overall. Unlike the VERSIONS of WORK category,(see 2. above)
these pieces are as close to being identical to the PRIMARY ORIGINALS as I can possibly manage.
The only exception being the frames. They are entirely hand-painted (generally smaller)
replicas of certain Primary Originals Ethically, technically and in every way, these pieces are also Original Paintings.
These pieces require weeks for me to complete. They often have very unusual frames which I embellish with one-of-a-kind
mattes and vintage objects de' art and unusual titles. They may be painted on wood, canvas, or other materials.
I usually create between twenty to one hundred pieces in this category of work each year.
4. SMALL GALLERY WRAP CANVAS REPLICA ORIGINALS
This is a new category I've created just for 2021.
NOTE:
I'VE BEEN CREATING WORK IN CATEGORIES 2 AND 3 FOR APPROXIMATELY 20 TO 30 YEARS-
(and in
category
4 just during 2021)
BUT BY THE END OF 2021 I HAVE DETERMINED TO COMPLETELY DISCONTINUE NEW CREATIONS IN THESE CATEGORIES.
I MADE THIS DECISION TO FOCUS MY ATTENTION ON
OTHER CREATIVE VENTURES SUCH AS THE OPENING OF MY FIRST PHYSICAL GALLERY,
CREATING NEW PRIMARY ORIGINALS,
AND SEVERAL SPIRITUAL GOALS.
IF YOU ARE CONSIDERING PURCHASING A PIECE IN THIS CATEGORY THIS COULD BE VERY GOOD NEWS FOR YOU
FOR SEVERAL REASONS. HERE ARE JUST A COUPLE OF THOSE REASONS...
1. IT IS HISTORICALLY VALUABLE TO OWN PIECES THAT CONSTITUTE THE LAST IN THE SERIES OF AN ARTIST'S WORK.
2. LIMITING THE NUMBER OF PIECES IN CIRCULATION ELEVATES THE POTENTIAL
FOR AN ARTIST'S WORK TO APPRECIATE. THIS IS SIMPLY STATED IN THE OLD ADAGE 'SUPPLY AND DEMAND'.