VONN SUMNER "Mavis Staples"
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$2,500.00
$2,500.00
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“Mavis Staples”
Acrylic on panel
24x20
I chose to paint Mavis Staples because her music has meant so much to me. At some point my relationship to her music became very personal, beyond just liking the music—and it happened in a dream. It must have been in college, or sometime not too long after, when I had one of those dreams that are like the opposite of a nightmare: full of the most intensely blissful feeling. It was one of the most vivid, meaningful, and memorable dreams I have ever had, and at the center of it was Mavis Staples singing “If You’re Ready (Come Go With Me)”. The dream stayed with me for days after I woke up. And even now, many years later, hearing that song brings back that feeling.
I tried to contact her to paint her portrait in person, or at least to draw her and take my own photographs to work from; I never heard back from her people. So I found a film of her performing that particular song in 1974, and I took still photographs of the film to paint from. I was trying to not only capture some likeness of her, but also of that song and that time and the feeling it gave me in that dream. Mavis Staples is magic. This painting is a small tribute to that.
Acrylic on panel
24x20
I chose to paint Mavis Staples because her music has meant so much to me. At some point my relationship to her music became very personal, beyond just liking the music—and it happened in a dream. It must have been in college, or sometime not too long after, when I had one of those dreams that are like the opposite of a nightmare: full of the most intensely blissful feeling. It was one of the most vivid, meaningful, and memorable dreams I have ever had, and at the center of it was Mavis Staples singing “If You’re Ready (Come Go With Me)”. The dream stayed with me for days after I woke up. And even now, many years later, hearing that song brings back that feeling.
I tried to contact her to paint her portrait in person, or at least to draw her and take my own photographs to work from; I never heard back from her people. So I found a film of her performing that particular song in 1974, and I took still photographs of the film to paint from. I was trying to not only capture some likeness of her, but also of that song and that time and the feeling it gave me in that dream. Mavis Staples is magic. This painting is a small tribute to that.
Questions about the artwork?
Contact: Karl Drehsen
562-881-2953
1 available