Valentines Day 2023

 

Send in the Clowns

 

When I first donned the Groucho nose and glasses in 1996, I knew that something funny was going to happen but I did not know exactly what.

Since then, for 25 years, that guise has taken me on a remarkable journey of self-discovery. Inspired by Marcel Duchamp’s female persona Rrose Sélavy, I created a masculine persona, Marc De Ansar. As my alter-ego, I have enacted crazy and courageous aspects of myself and have explored issues of gender, identity, sexuality, ethnic stereotypes, humor, and more…not necessarily in that order.

By using the comedic face of the jokester/clown, I’ve poked fun at the formality of the staid traditional portrait. Over time, the disguise, the mask, remained the same while underneath it all, I changed.

Always close at hand, at the ready to be a subject, over the years I’ve painted some 100 portraits of me as Marc. Who better to get to know than myself? 

With thoughts of Steven Sondheim’s song “Send in The Clowns” this portrait is one of four completed in 2005. The phrase “send in the clowns” is a theater reference meaning "if the show isn't going well, if a situation is irredeemably hopeless, let’s send in the clowns"; in other words, "let's do the jokes."

These days, as a counter to despair, we need good news, good humor, and good clowns more than ever.

Hmmm…That reminds me of a joke…

In conjunction with Alice Neel's Pictures of People at the DeYoung Musuem, the museum sent out a call for portraits to be included in an online gallery and displayed on a monitor at the Museum. There have already been some 341 submissions. Just look at the incredible variety!!! Such a testimony to the creativity of the human spirit!!!

Marc as a clown HERE.

 

Next?

IN conclusion...

On December 31, 2021, Marc De Ansar, 25, was laid to rest under the branching arms of the double oak tree at Rancho D’s Art Mind Park in Forest Knolls, California. Conceived in San Francisco in 1996, he grew into his full stature in Marin County. With his novelty disguise he was the recognizable symbol for art world “trickster.” Although he was always a character with a keen sense of humor, he never could tell a joke.  

His passing was anticipated. He will live on in the annals of time and circumstance.

De Ansar is survived by all who wish to answer the question, “NEXT?”

Don't Wait Vaccinate

Just when I think I'm done with Marc, a friend sent a photo from her Twitter feed of a Coronavirus wearing a Groucho nose and glasses. The ongoing bad news about Covid, Delta, Omicron and varients has Marc on the case, spreading the word: “Don’t Wait, Vaccinate.” With my pithy text, humor might just be the way to get those anti-vaxers to change their minds.

NEXT?

Beginning to wonder, what's next?

As Marc is put to rest, it is time to reveal of the scope of his character, time to introduce the public to the complexities of his guise and persona. 

Considering what form this reveal might take...

newspaper publication of obituary death announcement 

remembrance cards

memorial website with virtual celebration of life

funeral, burial, wake

Curriculum Vitae

Magnum Opus — as in alchemy and the process of transmutation

block-buster museum exhibition

360º gallery walk-through

immersive experience 

Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, Mixed Reality, Extended Reality

ZOOM slide show presentation and discussion with art history experts

scholarly papers on the comparative identities of Sélavy and De Ansar

establishing De Ansar's place within the annals of art history

When Marc is gone, without someone to give voice to his life work, his project will end up in the dustbin of history.

What a challenge, with more fun to be had, as I find ways to show and share the extraordinary life of Marc De Ansar.

60 Minutes - Saturday Night Live

That Gentleman

When I began this project I do not remember issues of gender and politics being much in the news. These days discussions about identity abound and the list of artists who have dabbled or fully embraced an alter-ego grows ever longer.

Duchamp got it started, at least for me, but way before him are numerous cultures who have had long standing traditions of genre mixing.

I never know in advance how the year and the portraits will play out. As I complete this final year and conclude my 25 year project, I’ve been thinking about passing the baton from Marc to Me and how to best represent this gesture.

As ideas bubbled up and I considered what to do, I returned to my first fascination with the portrait and the impact of Andrew Wyeth’s That Gentleman. Over the years I've written several posts about my lifelong experience with that painting.

A description of my portrait projects:

https://judithselbylang.wordpress.com/2015/01/04/portrait-projects/

History of Drawing 

https://historyofdrawing.wordpress.com/2018/06/15/lesson-one/

Gratitude 

https://darumaeight.wordpress.com/2013/11/23/gratitude/

On January 5, 2021 Richard helped me stage the photos but it was not until May 18 that I finally got the grid duplicate and I was ready to proceed.

Ampersand’s Claybord “archival and acid free sanded to a velvet smooth finish” 24" x 36" —  sounded perfect for my interest in replicating a Wyeth-like look of his dry-brush egg tempera on gessoed board.

Unfortunately, I discovered that the surface is impossibly slick so I struggled for months to get the darks dark enough without lifting the underlying paint. When I learned that Ampersand also made Aquabord another clay substrate that absorbs watercolor like a fine paper, I ordered a board. After two failed attempts to ship the board without damage, I finally received a good board and by the first of July I got to work on this very different surface.

As I apply the paint, it feels as though another area of my brain is being activated as I am learning how to respond to the rough vs smooth surface.

It’s slow going but now it is going.

Glasses

As a child I played with the idea that wearing glasses made you look smarter, so I was impervious to the “four-eyes” taunts. But, in my teens, the saying,  "Boys don’t make passes with girls who wear glasses" had me searching for ways to correct my myopia. For years I suffered with contact lenses; even tried orthokeratology, a process of fitting special contact lenses to reshape the cornea. Now in my ”Golden Years’ I wear glasses when I need them for distance but for reading and work at the computer I see better without.

We know that just wearing glasses is considered to be funny…then, when paired with a nose, mustache and bushy eyebrows and voilà, it’s super funny. Putting on N&G is an easy way to evoke a laugh plus they are a direct reference, shorthand for funny man Groucho.

Over the years I’ve collected hundreds of images — books and photographs that have used the N&G to denote something humorous. As the N&G became the defining trope for my portrait study, research led me deeper into their history. It never crossed my mind that they might represent a Jewish stereotype. My use was not intended to be derogatory or anti-Semitic. 

Mask or no mask, glasses or no glasses making assumptions about someone based on looks or skin color or racial profile is not OK. Snap judgments are short-sighted. Time for some corrective lenses for that.

 

Passing

Histrioriated Initials

In 2019 the intricate embellishments of illuminated manuscripts inspired that years portraits. The initials of Marc de Ansar’s name (MdA) were prepared as histrioriated initials.

Time went by and the initials were never colored in. Discovered buried deep in the folio, the page was brought to light and is now a fanciful ornamentation of interlaced ribbons, foliage, and colorful abstract forms.

Ornamented, Inhabited, Figurative, Historiated are all variations on the Decorated letter. These were usually placed as an enlarged letter at the beginning of a paragraph or text. 

April Fool's

 A Google search for April Fool’s brought me reams of Groucho nose and glasses images. That novelty disguise is the essence, the instantly recognizable symbol for the the definition of “fool.”

My April Fool's interpretation was presented on my road-side display banner and 25 MPH speed limit safety-dog.