I love Elvis, an iconic hero that helped to change music and culture, and despite the politics, feel he is an important cultural force that helped to make America a better place with his soulful interpretations and attitude of many kinds of music (in addition to rock ‘n’ roll, which he helped to create) and lifestyles. One thing I love about Elvis is, like an artist who works with appropriation (as I have done throughout my career), he is able to take songs he himself didn’t write, but to make them his own through his empathic interpretations.

Of course, to appreciate Elvis you have to look beyond the jokes and impersonators, but one thing that is striking about seeing this image, hanging on a mirrored wall above a staircase (leading to his highly secured bedroom!) is that to properly see it, you have to position yourself in front of the image, giving you an almost “mirror dance” portrayal of yourself—your legs and image, conjoining with his torso and face, just as if you are impersonating Elvis, stepping into his shoes.

The portrait is of him holding part of a bicycle wheel that a traveling DJ had given him in commemoration of his trip (the DJ was cut out of the resulting image, which itself is a painted over photo, also so important to my work as I paint from photos) and it’s wonderful that this is the image Elvis and his family chose to portray him while they lived here, the perfect portrait to portray as I paint myself conjoining him while listening to his incredible music and being moved.