Reverse glass paint and collage, glitter,fabric

Reverse glass paint and collage

Reverse glass paint and collage

Reverse glass paint & collage

Reverse glass paint and collage, glitter

“WildCard Hula” is one of many small works made in reference to the original “Hula” LiShinault larger oil painting from 1999.

“Hula” was a break-out piece of joy and celebration, and also an important work from the ‘Difficult Women’ series. The smaller renditions of “Hula” are fondly referred to as the “Hula Cousins”. Each of them in one way or another has borrowed the body of ‘Hula’, and made it their own.

For “WildCard Hula”, the arms and torso sproing wildly outward attached to a bouncing spiral ‘wire’. She dances, yet with a look of caution. Her bikini top features a smiley / frowny face design. The frown face represents those who have been stricken with breast cancer. In her case, she has overcome, but the scars are permanent. Her legs have multiplied because she represents many.

She dances to celebrate life

Reverse glass paint and collage

Reverse glass paint and collage, glitter

Reverse glass painted paper collage

“ChandeHula” is named for the chandelier the pretty lady here wears on her head as she whirls around in a little dance. If you look closely you can see tiny duck shapes hang from the chandelier. In a ‘nod’ to my sewn canvas and burlap art, I made faux ‘X’ stitches between the collaged paper and the copper paint in background. The ‘lovely duck’ (of love) accompanies her.

Reverse glass paint and collage

Created from absolute joy, “Shake Your Hula” was made along with the reverse glass “Hula” series based on the original LiShinault oil on canvas painting of a smiling, dancing, multi-armed life size hula dancer. Although this one is much smaller, I feel she evokes the joy of the original theme rather well. “Shake Your Hula” is shaking virtually the same maraca instrument as the original Hula….but she is shaking a lot more than that, especially with her quadrupled legs. Her dress is made of newsprint which has specific references to being in love and finding happiness.
-LiShinault

Reverse glass paint and collage (original includes blonde wood frame adding 3/4" around sides)

Reverse glass pant & collage

Reverse glass paint & collage (original includes blonde wood frame adding 3/4" around sides)

Reverse glass paint and collage (original includes blonde wood frame adding 3/4" around sides)

Reverse glass paint and collage (original includes blonde wood frame adding 3/4" around sides)

Reverse glass paint & collage (original includes blonde wood frame adding 3/4" around sides)

Fired and mounted ceramic tile with selectively broken mosaic areas

"Apart II" is another in the 'Difficult Women' series.
I used an earlier painting as a model….In this case I somewhat repainted “Apart” (oil on canvas) using paint glazes on ceramic tile. It is much smaller than the original, and the subject matter was dealt with in lighter tones. When I work with paint glazes on ceramic tile, the images appear bright and cartoon-like….fine with me, I can use more simplicity.
The story behind this piece is much like the original, but more about things in general than relationships. The young lady looks back to her past. Ahead of her are symbols of a bright future. The goat represents the good forces, those of friends she encounters who help her on her path.
The tiles were painted first, then purposely broken in various areas, with textured mosaic elements.

-LiShinault

“DreamGirl” was inspired by the ‘drum major’ hat and curly wig I like to wear for ‘dress-up’ occasions. This version was painted quickly originally on more than one tile, showing a whole body, but the outcome became just this one tile close up of her face. I always felt it was a dreamy image, so went with the title, “DreamGirl”.

Hand painted fired & mounted ceramic tile with glass mosaic borders

I imagined a stylish long, long neck duck wrapping around a lovely lady. I was inspired to make everything about this piece very light and bright to help the snake-like long neck duck seem less foreboding.

Hand painted fired & mounted ceramic tile

fired ceramic tile with glass mosaic edge detail

This piece, “BirdWatcher” was inspired by the artist Parmigianino, and Italian artist and his work entitled “Madonna with the Long Neck” from the era of 1535-40. I love his figures for the unnaturally long necks he gave them.
This long neck lady gazes out of the frame from a field with a sky full of migrating birds. I decided to ‘decorate’ and at the same time add 'closure' to the lower edge of this piece with a lovely pale colored glass motif.

Hand painted fired & mounted ceramic tile

Hand painted fired & mounted ceramic tile

“Book of Then” is from a series of single fired tiles with minimally painted images of female heads, often with books balanced on top. I call them the ‘hanging heads’. The ‘book titles’ on her head are mainly what was on my mind at the time…. Looking back on life and people I had known….’Then”.

Hand painted fired & mounted ceramic tile