Thornquestgallery - Art News

I have been working on expanding a series that I started awhile back based on the character Baby Jane Hudson played by Bette Davis in the 1960s camp noir film Whatever Happened To Baby Jane. It's the sardonic and twisted humor part of me that loves playing in these disturbing and utterly appalling characters of aged and unpleasant women who are completely over the top in their bitterness.

Old Gal Still #2

While the images from the above series were intended to have a vintage noir/film still feeling to them, I've recently started working on new characters that present themselves as informal portraits. The images themselves are unsettling, and I feel that the viewer may not immediately understand that these are created characters, which adds an extra dimension to the immediate perception of the image. The below piece is one of the newest additions to the series.

Curmudgeon

This was one of the absolute hardest photo shoots I have ever done, because it was physically painful to get my face to look like this (I am in my twenties...for two more days, at least.). I recalled the old admonishment "Your face is going to freeze like that!", and I feared for a second that it might. I did some cosmetic "aging" for the lines around the mouth, texture of skin and crows feet, but the bulk of the illusion was created through facial contortions. I had to bring my jaw down and my chin forward in order to elongate the face, wrinkle the chin and get the expression just right. My neck muscles are still on fire today, but I am happy with these old women even if they don't look too happy with me.

Mother In Law
Gym Teacher

See the whole series here...and remember, don't be mean and cranky or it will show on your face when you are long in the tooth. :)

Just in case I have new readers, and for the sake of comparison, this is what "I" look like when I am not being old and miserable.