Want Amy Winehouse In Your House?

Want some Amy Winehouse art? Would you like Amy to be in your house? Well, you can! You can get paintings of Amy that represent the raw emotion of her performance and even a personal side of Amy.

L.A. artist, Anne Deon, painted the original portrait of Amy Winehouse. We wondered what her inspiration was to paint the controversial singer, so we did a little Q&A to get to know Anne’s work a little better.

First, let me say, I really like your work, it has a real vibe. What motivated you to have Amy Winehouse as your subject?
I did a painting of Amy Winehouse because I greatly admire her enormous talents. Her voice is amazing, her lyrics are some of the most honest and heartfelt lyrics I have ever heard and the amount of energy and youthful mischief she displays in concert are fabulous. Of course I am talking about when she performs and is on top of her game.

Are you a fan of Amy’s music?
It took me 4 months to do the painting so I’d say: Yes, I am a big fan of her music.

What do you think about Amy’s recent troubles with the press and her X bloke Blake?
As for her most recent problems with Blake, I am hoping, as most of her fans are hoping, that she finds a way out of the emotional wreckage that plagues her heart when it comes to Blake. I think Blake is an unfortunate miscreant, who has touched upon some deep seated and unmet needs in Amy’s soul. I am hoping they can separate and put the guilt, the hurt and the broken dreams behind them and go forward in their lives separately. I am especially hoping Amy can shake lose from the painful influence he has exerted upon her and be free of him. Hopefully she is working her way through the wreckage and getting close to finding her way out of it.

(other original work by Anne “GAZING INTO THE FUTURE “)

GAZING INTO THE FUTURE GAZING INTO THE FUTURE GAZING INTO THE FUTURE

What reference point did you use to paint Amy?
The images of Amy that I used as references for my painting came from two separate sources. The standing pose where she is singing is from a photo of her at the 2007 Cochella festival in southern California, and the other is a pic from the Nelson Mandella concert in the summer of 2008.

Are you concerned about Amy’s reputation polluting your reputation?
LOL. I am an artist and I create what I want to create and what inspires me. I do not concern myself with worries about polluting my reputation. Amy Winehouse is a magnificent talent, and so very, very young. I cannot remember another talented musician/singer with so much honesty, insightful lyrics — personal soul revealing lyrics and musicianship. Nothing she has done is trite, nothing about her lyrics is cliche. I think she is brilliant. So, the answer is NO, I don’t worry about being polluted by her reputation. I think Amy is in the midst of a tragic addiction and would like to see her healthy. A talented person’s illness is nothing that would pollute my reputation.

Who are some other musicians and/or celebrities that you’ve painted? Or is Amy the first?
I have done several paintings of Muhammad Ali. Actually I created a series of paintings entitled: Heroes, Outlaws, Angels & Rebels. Muhammad Ali is one of my heroes. Amy Winehouse fits all categories in the series. She is very honest talent and I think that is Heroic, she is also a bit outside the law, having the drug problem (not something I admire), which one hopes is soon to be over. She is certainly a Rebel, in the way she has enunciated her talent. As for an Angel, well, I cannot quite articulate what qualities about her I find to be angelic without sounding completely sappy. It has something to do with the fact that millions love her and millions wish her well.
For this series, I have also done paintings of the outlaw Jesse James.

Will you have copies of these paintings to sell or just the “originals” only?
I would like to sell the original. Generally I do not provide prints or ‘copies’ of my paintings except on a one to one basis, and then I would and reproduce one of my paintings. When I do that I make a numbered, limited edition print on which I do some extra painting work so that the print is a unique, one of a kind print. In the case of the Winehouse painting I am looking to sell the original which is an oil painting on canvas, it is 62″ x 64″, quite large.

In the past, you worked with musician Alan Vega. Who is Alan Vega?
Alan Vega is a vocalist/musician who started one of the seminal electronic/synthesizer bands in the late 1970’s, with the musician Martin Rev. They rigged up a Wurlitzer piano to all kinds of waa waa pedals, and phase shifters, usually used on guitars to create a synthesizer like instrument. This was before synthesizers were marketed and sold in music stores. They also used a rhythm machine to create the weirdest music imaginable. Remember in 1979 the popular groups were people like Aerosmith, David Bowie, etc. So these guys, who called their duo “Suicide” (ugh, what a name) were truly unique. To make a long story a bit shorter, when Alan Vega was signed to Elektra records I recorded with him as back-up vocals and synthesizer player. The album was called: Just A Million Dreams. This is pretty much ancient history, although true music buffs are aware of the great influence credited to Alan Vega by pop music historians.

To see more of Anne’s work, or purchase an Amy painting, go to AnneDeon.com