Monday, July 23, 2012

Bruin Theater Nocturne


I've been working for several months on a new commission, I'll post it here soon. Meanwhile, this is small 12 x 12 inch painting, "Bruin Theater Nocturne".

The Bruin Theater is located in Westwood Village, close to the UCLA campus. It's an old Art Deco Theater and shows current films, but I chose Dr. Strangelove for the marquee since I had recently just seen it for the first time. I've been thinking a lot about the subject of anxiety, and I enjoyed Kubrick's way of presenting the anxiety of nuclear war in such a humorous way in Dr. Strangelove.

I really wanted to paint this place at night to show off the neon lights, and something about the wet rainy pavement reflecting the light felt symbolic of the unconscious. Like the way dreams are themselves like movies within our minds as we sleep.