AS THE GENIE'S LAMP BURNS...
June 24, 2003 - Austin, Texas- Catch up with the latest visions unfolding from Michael Schliefke's studio.  You'll get to see some in-progress shots of the latest work and find out what's he thinking while he's doing it.  Real adventurous souls can check back to last month's studio shots and chart the progress.

JULY 2003

The start of a new series of drawings, tentatively entitled the 'American Adonis'.  Until Americans start losing weight, the name, sadly, stays.  It's always nice to see the bars set high in the areas of consumption and vanity.  Speedos worn by fat men have haunted me from childhood.  Ironically, when I was growing up, it was fat French speaking, Speedo-clad Canadians that vacationed up and down the New England coast that gives me nightmares to this day.  Now its my own countrymen.

This painting has changed quite a bit lately, from its birth as three Mexican hookers to some bizarre women at a carnival.  The dresses however, remained red.  I'm not sure where this painting is just yet, but its starting to feel right.

Another painting that's been laying around the studio, needing the right things done to it to make it work a bit better.  I stole the pose straight up from this  Titian's painting of Danae and Zeus.  The painting has some backstage props in it, sandbags, a ladder, and the stage of success just off in the distance.  The dancer is worn out and waiting for her turn to shine.  It's becoming autobiographical. (note: while trying to find a link I came across this copy of this Titian that is at the Isabella Gardner Museum in Boston.  I hate acrylics and bad copies.)