The Three Graces - A Contemporary Revision

As part of showing pieces and parts form the Herstory exhibit, which you can find past post on through clicking on my blog archive, I am following the Judith and Holofernes post, up with the Three Graces based on the 16th century Raphael's version.

If you don't know Raphael's Three Graces here it is, but I encourage you to click on the link to read more about the source:
The Three Graces by Raphael, 1501-1505

I really love the photograph I took, more than the painting I made, that doesn't always happen that way. Actually, this photo is one of my favorite in the series. That is due to the spontaneity of the altered composition.
The models from left to right are Crystal Fraser, Sadie Casamenti and Yeon Hee (Sophie) Kim. We began posing with a serious literal translation, and being silly between shots created this version when model Yeon Hee(Sophie) Kim chose to pretend to eat the apple. A you can see, we didn't have 'golden apples' (though some say that's what oranges were called at the time) and our middle model (Sadie Casamenti) didn't have one at all. That was something I chose to rectify in the painted version. Three Graces are the personification of grace and beauty and the attendants of several goddesses. I thought this NEW pose, to be so much more empowering than the original version and truly more contemporary in meaning (a play on feminist rhetoric to be taking a bite out of the fruit - the all time symbol of fertility) that it became the one shot I chose.

I struggled with the painting mainly due to my indecisiveness about the environment (at first I wanted them standing on a New Jersey overlook of the NYC skyline), but I changed that idea quickly. The flat background came after a visit to some Chelsea galleries and seeing some inspiring work that abolished that self-restricted notion of active, engaging composition. In addition, the environment I was working in at the time (my living room) provided a stimulating play on color for me. Ultimately, my time constraints for the opening of the exhibit got the better of me with this oil painting and I'm not sure I'm completely satisfied with the final results. Not to mention I made the process quite difficult for myself by strictly trying to capture a likeness of the models. Which I did as part of the original intent and mission of this project: to foster self-esteem in self-identified young women of color.

This painting is oil on wood