Angelena Jolie as Cleopatra

Cleopatra

Encaustic Wax/Rinestones

12" X 16"

Judy Vars

NFS

Ok, so I'll admit it! I am fascinated by Angelina Jolie, her full voluptuous lips, her exotic beauty,  her dark side, and her compassionate human side. She is an intriguing creature/woman. While I painted her I listened to books on tape; the Unauthorized Biography of Angelina Jolie by Andrew Morton This was the first paragraph… “The room was stark and bare: white carpet, white curtains, white walls, and no furniture except for a white crib. For more than a year, a baby girl lived there, cared for by a ragtag assortment of babysitters. The child rarely knew if the person putting her to bed was the one who would dress and feed her in the morning. There were days when her mother, who lived in an apartment three stories below, would not visit.

That baby girl was Angelina Jolie. She was sent to live in the white room after her father, Jon Voight, left her mother, Marcheline Bertrand, for another woman. Marcheline said, “Angie reminds me so much of Jon right now that I cannot be around her. It’s just too painful.”

The other book was Anthony and Cleopatra by Colleen McCullough. This is a long historical fiction that was quite accurate.

This painting is now part of my menagerie of "Modern Icons" that I am working upon for my "Hall of the Famous and the Infamous." These will all be painted with encaustic beeswax in the Greek style like the Fayum Mummy Portraits. All are painted with the traditional palette of colors, yellow ocre, mars red, black and white while using the same tools that the ancients used (except of course electricity). I know these are obscure and definitely not mainstream, however I must follow where my heart takes me. I am in love with the idea of icons, what makes an icon, who they are, who they were, and why do they catch our attention.
I am even planning to do Sarah Palin! I know! She could even pose for me in person! otherwise it would be the unauthorized icon of Sarah. Saint Sarah No, I am not being sarcastic.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING