The Unsinkable Katharine Hepburn, 2007 Oil on linen 30 × 20 inches
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The Unsinkable Katharine Hepburn, 2007
Oil on linen 30 × 20 inches

This was for a show I had in Cleveland at Brett Shaheen Modern and Contemporary, called "Friends and Family." I didn’t want McCain to win the next election, and Ohio being a swing state (like my home state Colorado) I wanted to do "my part" by creating a conversation of who might be "friends and family" for the America I want to live in, one that is about the agency of all peoples to rise up, and have equal power for everyone. Katherine Hepburn is a "strong female protagonist" of all the films she is in, a powerful figure in Hollywood cinema who also acted as a wonderful role model for all. She was one of the first to wear pants suits for women, helping to create a craze for this fashion, which become ubiquitous and also symbolically powerful. She also was fiercely independent, outspoken, and strove and fought for her important place in Hollywood for her long career. Despite her secret long affair with Spencer Tracey, its also rumored she was bisexual, and/or a lesbian, which was probable, and was public speculation that didn’t diminish her idolization—which is also intriguing as she played spinsters in her later life that had indomitable, "unsinkable" spirits, like the great lady herself.