18th Sep 2009
Demi Moore Kutcher- Song of Songs Essence Portrait
What can I say about a woman who has helped to radically change the way we see women—and since I’m a woman, the way I see myself?
Demo Moore ’s career has involved risky roles such as those in Indecent Proposal and G.I. Jane , films where she used her talent and beauty to challenge narrow perceptions about women’s physicality and rights.
However, her riskiest role before a camera was simply playing herself, when photographer Fran Libowitz captured her nude and seven months pregnant for the cover of Vanity Fair.
While Demi Moore’s very pregnant photo is an iconic art image today, at the time it was a career risking and iconoclastic move.
Apparently the idea was to take a stand against “anti-Hollywood, anti-glitz” attitude.
It succeeded at more than the intended purpose.
With one image Moore and Libowitz decimated attitudes and constraints that sought to hide pregnancy or at least disguise it as if it were obscene. There was nothing obscene about the very pregnant Demi Moore. Instead, she was deeply beautiful and sexy in a way glitz and glam can never achieve.
Later Moore and Libowitz collaborated on another cover for Vanity Fair . This time they turned the tables on fashion and the art world as Libowitz photographed a fashionable “canvas” that was Demi Moore’s naked body with clothes painted on it.
Demi Moore’s use of herself as a canvas inspires and even challenges me, as an artist to do likewise. Of course Essence Portraits work to reveal more than the features of the public persona because every stroke is a letter from a carefully selected Bible text in the original language and font.
Song of Songs (Demi Moore Kutcher) by Judy Rey Wasserman
Like the previous portrait of her husband, Song of Songs (Ashton Kutcher), Demi Moore’s portrait uses the text of Song of Songs for the strokes. This will be explained in visual a blog that will be posted on September 23, 2009, which is the day before the couple’s anniversary the following day.
Song of Songs (Demi Moore: Hollywood ) is square – and meant to be or at least reference avatars. It is the first version of Song Of Songs (Demi Moore) that I created. It plays off a “ Hollywood ” background that references the sign. Only a few people are instantly recognizable as a symbol of the Hollywood goddess the way the Demi Moore is—but then Andy Warhol already created famous portraits of the others.
Song of Songs (Demi Moore: Hollywood) by Judy Rey Wasserman
Although Hollywood farms a part of Demi Moore’s background and she also represents it, in the image above she also partially obscures the gigantic sign.This is a visual reference to her career risking stands, such as thoise mentioned above to encourage the understanding of women’s real beauty and worth beyond their appearance.
The surface image of the portrait (face) is simplified, almost cartoon like and certainly slightly referencing the Warhol portraits. Yet we know that the structure of the portrait itself, the essence is those Torah font symbol-strokes, which are the words of the Bible.
Thus in the foreground, and yet underneath the glitz and glam, a meaningful, tolerant, loving and blessed essence of the human spirit is revealed. It’s easy to see the spark of The Divine in Demi Moore.
Notice that this portrait is of the young Demi, somewhere near or before the time of Ghost. This was a selfish move on my part as I do intend to create others portraits and felt it would be easier for me to move ahead in a chronological order for what I intend to create over time.
However, I am not yet ready to reveal the full picture of my plan, but the upcoming blog blog on September 23, 2009 does hint of what’s to come. I will also explain why I chose the Song of Songs for these portraits of the Kutchers and how I have used it, especially certain texts and words in both portraits. That blog will also deal with Twitter and the Kutchers, who are very much acting as a team via social media.
To discover more about Judy Rey Wasserman’s Post Conceptual UnGraven Image Art theory see http://www.ungravenimage.com and be sure to play the top video and download the completely free art manifesto booklet, “A Painting’s Meaning is Inherent in it’s Strokes”
A friend of mine just emailed me one of your articles from a while back. I read that one a few more. Really enjoy your blog. Thanks
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