A Special One

This graphite pencil drawing ‘Bettie Page – 20-05-16’ is a very special one. Absurd is another word that comes to mind when you look at it. It all started when I came across a special photo of Bettie Page. She was sitting at the edge of a swimming pool. Not the typical photo of her sitting on a couch in a 1950s American living room though. I found this picture purely astonishing. The water gave beautiful reflections and her body showed great core and cast shadows. Almost as if Tamara de Lempicka made the picture herself. Therefor I decided to emulate her way of viewing and give it a kind of art deco look. At least, that was my initial intention. After all, who could paint like Tamara just as other peole can’t paint like me. It always will become something else once you are struck with an idea.

What You Didn’t Bargain for

It turned out to become something different than intended. She actually start looking a little bit plastic. Surely Tamara’s depictions of the female body also look like this but I was a bit annoyed initially. Then again, what you didn’t bargain for sometimes are the sweetest of surprises. So I finished her as some kind of inflatable doll. After all, in many pictures she looks like a doll. On acid and with a kinky tang, to that you have to admit. Even though she’s not clad in leather or lingerie, the kinkiness shows off. Then, all of a sudden visions of a gnome and a bicycle pump popped into my mind. That makes perfect sense, wouldn’t you say? The flats in the back I set in fire for a change. Perhaps she sets our hearts on fire. For many people living ordinary lifes in ordinary apartments her style could be incinerating.

Graphite pencil drawing (Pentel 0.5 mm, 3B) on Canson Bristol paper (21 x 29.7 x 0.1 cm) – format)
Artist: Corné Akkers