THREE NUDES CONTEMPLATING JOHNNY DEPP - Artwork by Ben Kikuyama

THREE NUDES CONTEMPLATING JOHNNY DEPP

acrylic, charcoal, found objects, foam core
30" x 22.5" x 2"
SOLD

For a while, I did a series of pieces which included these three nudes. They were my representation of the three muses of Greek mythology. Often they would be in a room with a black and white checkerboard floor (which was the flooring I had in my studio at the time).

This is a three-dimensional piece which includes found objects and writing on the wall to help the viewer piece together clues to what’s going on in the scene. This piece incorporated a charcoal drawing of Johnny Depp, my wife’s favorite movie star crush.

– write-up from the artist

"I am not resigned to the shutting away of loving hearts in the hard ground.
So it is, and so it will be, for so it has been, time out of mind:
Into the darkness they go, the wise and the lovely. Crowned
With lilies and with laurel they go; but I am not resigned.

Lovers and thinkers, into the earth with you.
Be one with the dull, the indiscriminate dust.
A fragment of what you felt, of what you knew,
A formula, a phrase remains,—but the best is lost.

The answers quick and keen, the honest look, the laughter, the love,—
They are gone. They are gone to feed the roses. Elegant and curled
Is the blossom. Fragrant is the blossom. I know. But I do not approve.
More precious was the light in your eyes than all the roses in the world.

Down, down, down into the darkness of the grave
Gently they go, the beautiful, the tender, the kind;
Quietly they go, the intelligent, the witty, the brave.
I know. But I do not approve. And I am not resigned."

– Dirge Without Music by Edna St. Vincent Millay