Jennifer La Croix commissioned me to revisit a recurring theme I have continued for years. She saw an earlier version of this theme and asked me to reproduce it. Since I avoid doing the same painting twice, I offered to reexamine the subject from a new perspective.

The concept for this painting began several years ago with the idea and challenge of combining opposing images. I was at a 'surrealist' point in my artistic philosophy when I first tried to do it. The Surrealist movement was founded in the art of conflicting images. Dali's famous 'melting clocks' is a great example of mixing opposing or conflicting ideas and objects. It's been done many ways.

I wanted to explore the idea in a new direction and this was my approach:

We know the story "Beauty and the Beast"
But, what if "Beauty IS the Beast"?

I love painting faces. A beautiful face is all the better. So, I chose the face of a woman to be the foundation of the conflict. My goal was to show a beautiful face that is just as hideous. How can such opposites be the same? Hmmmm.

"These fractions also set up shadows..."

At the start, I decided to use stark geometry as the third aspect of beauty is the beast.'. I broke away from tradition by dividing everything proportionally in half. A bit later, you'll see what I mean.

The unbending consensus among art 'scholars' is that '1/2' is a bad fraction to use in art. It rarely looks right. And I know why... With a face for example, It's twice as hard to mirror the other half. It's very telling of skill. It's asking for trouble to use 1/2 and it takes a lot more time to make it work.

In my painting, the skyline meets earth at the middle of the image. The perspective uses 1/2 to decide size, shape and distance. Then I follow up with the divisions of 1/4, 1/8 and even 1/16 if the focus is important. These fractions also set up shadows and every other important element - from her eyes and lips, to the coiled serpent's tails and oblong pits... The challenge is to make such a rudimentary process of division, unnoticeable.

 I've painted such a face a few times now. Each time marks a new point in my maturity as an artist. The 'new' painting is near completion now. Have a look at the sketched out divisions and see how I modify things as I go...