"An Artist & Scientist Paired" portrait series 2011-2016

Savador Dali & Nikola Tesla

Acrylic on a 36" x 24" canvas, 2011, personal collection

One day my boyfriend (now husband) mentioned he was interested in buying a painting off Etsy of Savador Dali. I had him show it to me and that's when I told him I could make him a better painting and gift it to him. I wanted the canvas to be large enough to compete with his TV screen so I picked a 36" x 24" canvas. Since I wanted the canvas to be hung horizontal there was room for another portrait on the canvas. I asked my boyfriend if there was someone he would like to be on the painting across from Dali and he picked Tesla. This then sparked a series which I continued to develop in 2016.

Albert Einstine & Bob Ross

Acrylic on two 14" x 11" canvases, Winter 2016, personal collection

I paired these guys together at first because of their iconic hair. Turns out they both have some links to the military. Bob Ross served in the Air Force for 18 years. Einstein wrote a letter to Roosevelt alerting him to the development of "extremely powerful bombs" during World War II. They both expressed the feeling that the military wasn't for them. 

Frida Kahlo & Marie Curie

Acrylic on two 14" x 11" canvases, Winter 2016, personal collection

These two women are well known in their respective fields, and both married men who were successful in those professions too. Curie's husband was interested in her work so much so that he dropped his own work to support hers. Together they won a Nobel Prize for Physics for their work on radiation, and her husband wanted it to be clear the research ideas were Marie's original work. Kahlo's husband Diego Rivera regarded her as the greatest Mexican artist even though he was broadly considered the greatest living Mexican artist at the time.