“Une Petite Pause” (“A Little Pause”) depicts the painter supposedly taking a break from his work. He’s tilted back on his chair, shooting a cocky sidelong look at the viewer. His elaborate gown and lofty hairdo aren’t like anything most artists would wear in the studio. A thin paintbrush juts up at a phallic angle from his lap, thoroughly confusing the gender signals. http://www.seattletimes.com/entertainment/portland-painter-stephen-orsquodonnell-tries-on-new-drag/ While his painting calls to mind the works of the great masters, it has a decidedly modern twist, playing fast and loose with gender identity. O’Donnell describes his process as an unceasing revision of his image, an endless mutation of self, reinventing himself each time he creates a new piece. Of his gender identity, O’Donnell says, “I identify as a degree of transgender: more female than male, I may dress and live my daily life as a man, but I am very deeply both genders. . . The way I represent myself in my paintings is a way to honor and reconcile these feelings. Painting myself the way I do, as a man in women’s clothes – I never really try to make the illusion that I’m female – is a way of expressing this most important part of my identity. The closest I can get to representing a whole self.” Though the gender duality revealed in his paintings isn’t part of his day-to-day life, he hopes to one day further explore this. “I do have the sense – hope – that as I move into my old age I’ll allow myself more – fabulousness – in my appearance, both masculine and feminine. I feel like that in my personal presentation I haven’t allowed myself to play for a long time, since my twenties, really. I think more me is coming, whatever blend of gender that looks like.” (https://nailedmagazine.com/art/artist-feature-stephen-odonnell/) I love historical jewelry - I'm a painter - I love to paint jewelry. The very qualities that make precious stones fascinating to look at - reflection, refraction, translucence, shine, etc. - make them fun to paint as well. Another thing that makes the process fun for me is that I get to design the jewelry that I include in my work. The settings of my paintings span quite a long timeline - the 1500s through to the 1950s - so I've had plenty of opportunity to design pieces that are appropriate to a great variety of time periods. My pedantic heart loves the research this requires, and feels a good bit of pride that I "get things right." Sorry to say that none of these objects actually exist. Nowhere other than in my grandiose imagination, that is. (http://godsandfoolishgrandeur.blogspot.nl/2017/01/mes-bijoux-selection-of-jewels-and.html)