This past month I had a particularly enlightening trip down memory lane, inspired by the sale of a favorite piece from a previous series.

Athena Stays the Dawn ©lesliepetersonsapp

Athena Stays the Dawn was done for a small series based on The Odyssey. It was done for a specific show, and after it was done I decided to go back to my work with film noir. But I have been inspired by classical literature and mythology throughout my artistic career.

When in college I did a series of art based on Shakespeare’s Richard III- I was so enamored with Sir Laurence Olivier’s movie I decided to create paintings with the characters in different contexts and times. 

Richard III College work by Leslie Peterson Sapp

 

When in my 30’s, I created work based on mythology from ancient Greece and pagan Europe.

The Green Man ©lesliepetersonsapp

Offering ©lesliepetersonsapp

I love and enjoy observational painting, but I seem compelled to tell a story with my art, to create a narrative. I am driven to explore and share the landscape of my imagination. The sale of Athena Stays the Dawn brought back memories of all the ways I have used art to tell stories. It seems that the act of telling a story is more important than the trappings of time and place and specific characters. 

It has been said that film noir are modern day myths.

Vacancy, hand painted intaglio

The characters have become archetypes in our collective imagination. Similar to the myths and stories of old, the characters are driven by forces larger than themselves and are so very, very human. Often being brought down by their own drives and weaknesses, they are driven by a futile effort to cheat Fate. The themes are an undying fact of what it is to be human. 

For now, I am entirely caught up in the dark labyrinth of film noir. But who knows what stories my future art will tell?

 

If you are interested in seeing my work based on The Odyssey, visit this page on my website.

If you want to read posts about it, here are some links to my blogposts about it.

My New Series Based on The Odyssey 

Why the Odyssey? 

The Land of the Lotus Eaters

Penelope, the Matchless Queen of Cunning

The Song of the Sirens!  

Athena, Telemachus and the Origin of the Word “Mentor”

⁠Georgia O'Keeffe is one of those rare artists who is a household name, whose work is instantly recognizable. She is known, of course, for her flower imagery, and her depictions of the American South West landscape. But she also did glorious, imaginative citiscapes.⁠

The Hotel Sheraton with Sunspots

New York Street with Moon

Radiator Building

⁠
In my newest piece, involving a man, reading a newspaper up against a building, I am thinking a lot about these images, and I lifted ideas directly from them, particularly this one here:

Georgia O'Keeffe, Ritz Tower, 1928

This piece, Watch, is still in process (though it seems to be close to being done). When I decided to add the lighted windows, I was taking a huge artistic risk and it changed the whole piece. It is The Ritz Tower by Georgia O'Keeffe that has been guiding me through.

Watch is 20x40, and has collaged newspaper, as well as collaged windows.

You can see the blow by blow process of making this painting on my Instagram, Facebook or, yes, even Twitter.

Watch, July 20, 2021

Watch, July 28, 2021

I once learned that good fiction writers have a peculiar relationship with the characters they supposedly create. At some point, the character will take on a life of its own, and the author becomes more of a communication medium for a seemingly autonomous being they are somehow the guardian for, but no more. The characters sometimes do things the author doesn’t expect, and the plot can take turns that even the author is surprised by.

Lately, I have found that the figures in my art are starting to speak to me and have a life of their own, just like might happen with an author. I had an interesting thing happen along these lines.

Usually, when I need to draw a male figure, I take pictures of myself in male drag. First I draw what I see in the photograph, then go on to “masculinize” myself. 

I flatten the chest, broaden the shoulders, narrow the hips, square the jaw, and so on. I was all set to go through this process to create a piece that eventually became The Knave of Swords seen here. I used some binding to flatten my chest under my shirt. Then I realized I needed a new reference photograph of myself without the shirt on in order to understand the position of the shoulders.

That’s when the character took on a life of its own. Then I realized I had a treasure.

©lesliepetersonsapp Untitled Drawing

Breast/chest binding has a very, very long history, and has been done for a number of reasons. The character that emerged and took over my original idea seems to be doing it for the purpose of “passing” as a male. It is as if we are catching them midway through their dressing ritual. At some point during my drawing process, one thing became clear: this person did not want to be transformed completely, to be erased from the story, for me to move onto the safer waters, ignoring their existence. 

So. I saved this drawing as is. I took a photo, printed the photo out and traced it onto a new piece of paper, and continued onto my cisgender male vision from there. But the butch woman remained. 

To learn more, this is a totally fun video about the origin of the word "Butch" and what it means.    https://www.them.us/story/inqueery-butch

©lesliepetersonsapp Circle Mirror Drawing

From this experience, new pieces featuring butch women with binding have emerged.  This one is currently called Circle Mirror, and I plan to develop this into a painting soon.

©lesliepetersonsapp The Hanged Man Drawing

After doing mostly collage for a few years, I have taken a turn to painting again. Although I love the effect of the collage, painting provides me with agility and fluidity that I have come to miss. When I wish to alter or change a piece, a simple swipe of the brush and it is done.
With paint I am working hard on developing richness and depth, and expand upon the chiaroscuro effects so integral to the famous film noir aesthetic.  

©lesliepetersonsapp The Knave of Swords 30x20

The Knave of Swords started as a drawing, which I transferred onto a dark blue ground and went to work. He emerged fully formed, like Athena from Zeus' skull.⁠
⁠It is a wonderment to me that during this time of increased awareness of the plight of Asian Americans, and during Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month that my latest male figure should arrive in the form of a sexy, bad-ass Asian man.⁠

©lesliepetersonsapp Queen of Diamonds 30x20

With this new beauty, I felt inspired to make a painting with a woman playing cards with us, the viewer, and at the same time doling out our fate. A real woman, and a quasi-super-natural element of fate at the same time. The question was, which suit should I make her? Which suit would pack the most amount of symbolic punch?

I solved it by creating an engaging online poll in my social media communities, asking my fans to vote on which suit, hearts or diamonds would best represent my newest femme fatale. The Queen of Hearts got a good showing, The Queen of Diamonds was the undisputed winner. 

To learn more about the unexpectedly complicated decision about which suit to choose, I have written an interesting blogpost about it, entitled When a Card Isn’t Just a Card:  A Lesson in a Lexicon of Racism

If you are interested in witnessing the blow-by-blow, non-stop action of what it takes to create an artpiece, you can follow me on social media: 

Instagram

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Even Twitter

In this short video, you can watch me paint the diamond on this card of Fate!

I am fascinated by playing cards and their symbolism. I recently felt inspired to make a painting with a woman playing cards with us, the viewer, and at the same time doling out our fate. A real woman, and a quasi-super-natural element of fate at the same time.

©lesliepetersonsapp Queen of Diamonds

But which card? Obviously, a Queen. Which suit? Which suit would pack the most amount of symbolic punch?
I started to research the four card suits and any symbolic meanings that might be associated with them. I was especially enjoying The Queen of Spades. In cartomancy she is supposed to represent a woman who is intelligent and strategic. She is also featured in a book by Pushkin and an opera by Tchaikovsky. Sometimes she is called The Black Madonna, Black Maria, or The Black Lady, and is considered a powerful, “unlucky” card. In Hearts and Old Maid, she has the power to end the game. There is a variant of Seven Card Stud Poker where she is featured called “The Bitch”. In Pinochle she and The Jack of Diamonds make a significant hand, boding doom for one’s opponent. I thought she would be the perfect candidate for this femme fatale, this goddess of chaos I was dreaming up. I was even considering making a companion piece called The Jack of Diamonds.

But my curiosity led me on an unexpected journey.

Way back in 1998 I saw the movie Bulworth. In it there is a scene where the main character, played by Warren Beatty, says to an audience full of African Americans “Let’s call a spade a spade” and the crowd erupted with indignation. Ever since then I have passively wondered about that and I thought now was the time to look up the phrase. 

It turns out it has evolved into a racial slur. 

The evolution of the phrase is fascinating. It used to mean “call it like it is”. It comes from an ancient Greek saying "to call a fig a fig and a trough a trough."  Which is in itself a sexual double entendre- get it? Figs? Troughs? (Never mind. It seems like everything back then was a sexual double entendre.) 

In an evolution that I only vaguely understand, the phrase was translated from Greek to Latin, from Latin to English. Note that during this time the term “spade” was still referring to gardens and gardening tools. 

During the Harlem Renaissance it started to be used by Black authors to refer to “Blackness” and also to playing cards. Terms like “Black as the ace of spades” started to be used (possibly an expression of “colorism” in the Black community). But then, like so many things, it got appropriated by white authors and evolved into a derogatory term. 

So, what about my new main character as The Queen of Spades? Well, it gets worse. The term “queen of spades” has evolved (or devolved) even further to refer to white women who fetishize Black men. I don’t mean date or marry or love a Black man, I mean sexually fetishize Black men, often in company with their white male partners. This is dual objectification; of the Black man, and of the white woman. It is a particularly ugly form of racism.

Out of my ignorance, I almost walked face first into a racially charged image. 

Imagine that. Imagine I had not seen Bulworth all those years ago, had not remembered the term, had not decided to search Wikipedia for the phrase, had not done an additional google search specifically about The Queen of Spades. I would have made a piece of art featuring a sexy, very white woman, (white because I was thinking about the white of the playing card and wanting the painting to have echoes of that) and called it The Queen of Spades. What is doubly alarming is that I had been musing about completing that Pinochle hand by painting The Jack of Diamonds, and arbitrarily creating him as a Black man. 

All completely unaware. 

I have gone through my life submerged in whiteness and white culture, to the extent to where there is a racial slur, I might not even know about it or see it for what it is. 

Some people might say that I am being overly precious, too “PC” or too “sensitive”. Furthermore, it might be said that many people don’t know about this particular racial slur, so why would it matter? But one of the values I hold is to be respectful of all people as much as possible. In order to do that, I need to learn about when I might be doing or saying something that is racist, because racism does harm. Period. It is important because even if I don’t intend to be racist, it doesn’t mean I haven’t caused racial harm. 

Not only that, my audience is wide and varied, and I want everyone who interacts with my art to be able to relate to it- or at least not feel disrespected or hurt. 

So, it was a simple matter of rethinking my metaphors. Away from the stormy waters of the suit of spades and toward the equally intriguing subjects of Love and Money. Love with The Queen of Hearts, and money with the heartless Queen of Diamonds. In fact, I turned it to my advantage by creating an engaging online poll in my social media communities, asking my fans to vote on which suit, hearts or diamonds would best represent my newest femme fatale. The Queen of Hearts got a good showing, The Queen of Diamonds was the undisputed winner. 

So, The Queen of Diamonds, she is.

To read a good article about the evolution of these terms, visitCode Switch from NPR
 

©lesliepetersonsapp Ambivalence

My Film Noir series has dark, rich colors, high drama, and often integrates collage for pop and panache.

But those of you who have followed my art for a while know that it wasn’t always that way. 

For many years I did work in a very different style, based on vintage snapshots of ordinary people. This body of work evokes feelings of wistful nostalgia. 

©lesliepetersonsapp You Are the Only One 24x36 Acrylic on panel

They are boldly drawn with thin layers of paint over visible wood grain. It was a popular and satisfying method that worked for me for years before I felt the need to evolve and change. 

©lesliepetersonsapp Reservoir 36x24 Acrylic on panel

Many of these pieces are still available! In this vein, I’ve done an entire reorganization of my website. I have included a page of available artworks in this previous style.
 
The website is organized into three pages under Portfolio. Each image on each page has a clear indication of where to inquire about the piece, and if you feel so moved, how to buy it.

visit www.lesliepetersonsapp.com to see all my work, current and otherwise!

Another way to explore this earlier style is to visit previous blogposts, especially the years 2013 and before.  Look at the Archive section on the right side of this page to investigate.

With narrative art such as mine, we are reminded that there is more than one way to tell a story.  Some are told with words, others with sounds, body movement, or images.

My last show was entitled “Story Without a Plot”, which demonstrates how I am driven to tell stories with my art, even if it is implied and not explained with words. 

©lesliepetersonsapp Lace 40x40 Collage, acrylic on panel.

 Our imagination is part of what makes our lives have richness and meaning. The figures in my pictures feel like ghosts performing tableaus and delivering messages from our own subconscious.

©lesliepetersonsapp Anticipate 16x20 Collage on panel

I use the elements of design to support a narrative. Deep focus emphasizes the distance between people, even in a closed room. Dramatic value changes create mood and mystery. Silhouettes and profiles obscure the identity of the characters and create an even larger screen for us to project our stories on.

©lesliepetersonsapp Search 48x40 Collage and Acrylic on panel.

 The spaces I depict feature mirrors, doors, windows, apertures through which we witness dramas unfolding, furthering our engagement with the piece. Populated with femme and homme fatales, they evoke photographs a private detective might take through a window, espying people in some forbidden situation. The mystery of what we see compels us to wonder and reflect.
 

On my social media I often share posts about other artists who inspire me. I have decided to start a blog post series based on the same thing. Here is the first installment.

An Artist Who Inspires- Suzanne Valadon

Suzanne Valadon has what might be the coolest biography anyone could hope for.
She was born named Marie-Clémentine Valadon in Montmartre district of Paris. 

What is Montmartre? The site of the famous Moulin Rouge, and an incubator of art and culture. A partial list of artists who hung out there over the years include Renoir, Toulouse-Lautrec, Degas, van Gogh, Raoul Dufy, Picasso, Les Nabis (Vuillard, Bonnard), Matisse, André Derain, and later Langston Hughes, Josephine Baker, and Django Reinhardt.
And yes, she was born there! 

She was very poor, and her father is unknown. She quit school at age 11 and by age 15 was an acrobat at the famous Cirque Fernando. An acrobat!

Paintings of the Cirque by Toulouse-Lautrec and Degas

But very soon after she started, she fell from a Trapeze, injuring her back, and that was the end of that. 

She started modeling for artists, such as Puvis de Chavannes, Renoir, and Toulouse-Lautrec. During this time, she gained the nickname "Suzanne" after the biblical story of Susanna and the Elders (a story where dirty old men spy on a naked young woman). 

Paintings of Suzanne Valadon by Toulouse-Lautrec

Valadon by Renoir- him, being Renoir, may have idealized her just a bit.

 While observing her artist employers, she began to teach herself how to draw, and then paint. Degas, in particular, encouraged her and bought her work. She became an accomplished and respected artist. 

Etude de Chat by Suzanne Valadon

Valadon’s work seems to be mostly post-impressionism, but she really stood out because of the subjects she was willing to handle. 

Most female painters at that time, such as Cassatt and Morisot confined themselves to landscape, still life, and domestic scenes involving children and women. Valadon painted all these subjects, as well...  but she also did nudes.

Reclining Nude by Suzanne Valadon

 Nudes nudes nudes. She did nude women, but did not idealize their bodies.

The Blue Room by Suzanne Valadon

She did self portraits and recorded her aging face.

Self portraits by Suzanne Valadon

 She drew her son as he bathed or slept.

My Son Utrillo by Suzanne Valadon

 And she painted nude men, unheard of at that time, and one of the first and few examples of a man being seen through the “female gaze”.

Casting the Net by Valadon- model is her husband Andre Utter

At 18, Valadon had a son who also became a famous painter, Maurice Utrillo. She married twice, once to a wealthy banker, and then to a man 21 years younger than she, Andre Utter. She died of a stroke in 1938 at age 72.
To top off the world’s coolest biography, she also has a crater on Venus named after her. And an asteroid.
How cool is that?

March is Women's History month. During this time I am contemplating my position as a female artist, creating narrative art.

2019 Leslie Peterson Sapp Many a Moon

Part of the enduring fascination we have with noir is the inclusion of powerful female characters. The zenith of film noir was from the 1930’s-1950’s a time of extraordinary change for women, particularly during WWII, when they took up jobs vacated by men who were off at war. The war, plus the changing role of women in society, created nationwide anxiety, much like the anxiety evidenced in our own times.

However, with some exceptions, the classic femme fatale of those times was not a feminist figure. She is not a fully developed character in her own right, but tends to act as a foil for a male character's unfolding drama. Many people think she is a protofeminist, whose disruptive presence and self-serving motivations were a meaningful precursor to the feminist movement.

A terrific article in Crime Reads "The Evolution of The Femme Fatale in Film Noir", Halley Sutton describes the evolution of the femme fatale from the heyday of film noir to the neo noir of today. Her use of her sexual power to get what she wants is still intact, but her personhood is affirmed and sometimes she is even the primary character! Imagine that!

2020 Leslie Peterson Sapp Gamp

In my own work I am wrestling with the issues of stereotypes- am I perpetuating them? Does the work I produce actually uphold my values? My use of nostalgia and depictions of a by-gone era seems to give me license to stay in my comfort zones and repeatedly depict figures that are young, slender, and largely white.
The only answer I have for that is that I keep trying. I keep questioning myself, educating myself and seeing how I can stretch my comfort zones.
What new dramas unfold?

 

2016 Leslie Peterson Sapp Fatale 30x36

Okay, I don’t really mean that.

During this time of celebrating love and romance, I remember that quote a friend of mine said many years ago: “Romance is about NOT being fulfilled, it’s about longing.”

So let us distinguish between the two: Love. Romance.

Love is wholesome and sees its object as a full person, whether that person is your date, your spouse, your child, friend, parent.

Romance is about the tension that is held between you and an object of your desire. That can include love- or not.

2021 Leslie Peterson Sapp Glass Houses

We all hope that our romantic relationships will be loving ones. We all hope that we will be held in an embrace of mutual respect, understanding and compassion. Nevertheless, it is so very much fun to witness the destructive, obsessive, doomed romances flickering on the silver screen in a good film noir.

So this Valentines Day, let us raise a glass to the darker sides of our nature.

Salud!