McLean Edwards

Hello my favorite small humans!

Happy Thursday!  I hope Florida is lovely today – New Jersey is cold and wet and in it’s usual early winter yuck.  I am displeased by it, so we’ll speak no more of that.

 

Your GramE has just visited the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, of which I am insanely jealous.  Your Uncle Patrick wants to visit there someday and go into one of those cages where you get dropped into the water off the side of a boat so that you can swim with the sharks!  I’ve told him I’ll come along, but I’m staying ON the boat if there are sharks in the water!  (Actually, I’m pretty sure that if I were there, I’d end up getting in the cage with him…but it really does sound like a very bad idea…or a very good way to end up losing bits that you need as shark snacks!).

 

So, in keeping with my theme of Australian artists this month, I’ve selected McLean Edwards.  He was born in 1972, so is just a little bit older than I am, and lives and works in Sydney.  I’m pretty sure the first picture below is a self portrait – it’s my favorite, because there’s a sweetness, or a kindness, in it that isn’t in the others.  All of his work that I’ve seen has this wonderful, whimsical, almost cartoon-ish feel, but there’s a darkness to it – like the lady, with her big pink bow in her hair and her snow white colored dress….but she’s holding a cigarette and a voodoo doll. 

 

The second one is the one that caught my eye, because it immediately made me think of VanGogh’s postman (below).  Van Gogh had a thing about painting the same things a bunch of times, so not all of his postman paintings have this same background, but I remember the first time I saw it thinking it was just about the ugliest thing I’d ever seen, even though I loved the colors – and McLean’s painting of the red eared man strikes me the same way; I like it, but I hate it, too. 

 

My boss is needing me, so I’ve got to cut this short, but know that I love you and I think that you’re awesome.

Much love,

Auntie Paula

XOXOXO