If you confine it, you're confining a whole thing.
Alice Cooper
In between everything, I've tried to return to doing embroidery subjects on vintage linen. I've done some portraits, but am expanding to touch on things that capture my attention. Last year I came across an AP photo from 1973 of Alice Cooper. It was unusual, it showed him reaching out to tenderly touch the face of a young girl who was close to the stage (not what you would expect to see at one of his theatrical concerts). There was a resonance. Michigan was exploding with musical styles when I was growing up. However, Alice Cooper was something my parents didn't approve of (I came into his orbit later in the 1970s). Then a close male friend who was a drummer, took me to the edge of AC's world. He was my siren song. I saw in him a voice that wasn't afraid to stand out, to take on the world in his own terms, to not be confined to a certain expectation of who you should be. So doing an interpretation of this photo on the very lady like and innocent facades of the original embroidery was a natural progression. A homage to a special moment in confining times.
I wanted to offer Detroit City or Under My Wheels, but couldn't find a good copy to share so we'll do something from recently that still reflects the energy of that time.
Alice Cooper, 'I'll Bite Your Face Off':