`Bond Girl` artist opens exhibition to showcase her 007 inspired paintings (photos)
15-Dec-2003 • Bond News
Share the Story
Her new show, "Bond Girl: Paintings Inspired by the 007 Films," is a delicious romp prompted by mostly unmemorable moments in more than a dozen vintage James Bond films. It runs through Jan. 4 at the Soo Visual Arts Center in Minneapolis, where the irrepressible artist recently discussed her fascination with all things Bond and posed for a portrait.
Artist Lee Anne Swanson-Peet struck a playful pose amid her "Bond Girl" paintings at Soo Visual Arts Center.
Her Bond paintings are surprisingly sex-free, having been inspired more by the films` graphic qualities and period details -- globe lights, dial phones, snarling Persian cats -- than their innuendo-laden plots. Puddles of gleaming automotive resins give the paintings a slick, stylized look that she accentuates with shadows and other details painted in oils. In any case, she finds Bond-style machismo more amusing than offensive.
"Runaway" by Lee Anne Swanson-Peet - inspired by You Only Live Twice.
"I`m from that generation of feminists who aren`t threatened by that type of misogyny," Swanson-Peet said. "It`s so lame, it`s innocuous."
One day she fixated on the image of a little boat bobbing in the sea between the words "The End," at the conclusion of the Bond film "Dr. No."
"I thought, `I should paint that," she said. "I thought it would be a pleasant diversion. Not personal. And it turned into this academic exercise in painting things I`d never painted before - cars, an alligator, kittens, rockets, and the human figure, which I hadn`t painted since art school. It started out as a serious experiment, but it turned out to be fun."
As for her career, she has a spring show at Rosalux Gallery in Minneapolis and a show sometime in 2004 at a gallery on New York`s Staten Island.
Beyond that, "I`m just going to keep making art," she said. "It`s not like I can stop."
Discuss this news here...
