“To Meryl Or Not To Meryl” An Amalee Original.
I started “To Meryl Or Not To Meryl” as a 12 inche X 12 inche painting, and turned into a 4 feet X4 feet Painting. When I saw Sophie’s Choice in the theater many years ago, I remember thinking how I loved her confession in blue light. The colors in her face while she confessed her choice made an impression I wanted to paint.
Sometimes After I finish a painting like “Toulouse and Egon Frolicking”, I find it difficult to start another painting. A painting that surpasses my expectation of myself makes it difficult to start a new one. I started small and realized I had to overcome my fear and go big.
After Meryl made her speech at the Golden Globes Awards, I remembered her blue confession. As I started painting her blue portrait from Sophie’s Choice, I came up with the words “To Meryl Or Not To Meryl”, which made me laugh. I realized it might not be funny but as an artist I decided it didn’t matter, I liked it.
I used the comic look of “Toulouse and Egon Frolicking” on the big beautiful face of Meryl. The comic look works well with the beautiful depth of colors. The words ‘To Meryl or not to Meryl” are written across her face adding another layer and relates to the style of my other paintings. Here is a sample of these paintings:
Looking at these images together I see that Meryl is different but I like it. While some paintings take on a better or at least equal quality in photographing them, Meryl is more beautiful in person. I think the bigness of her face makes it hard to appreciate the size and beauty of this painting.