Wednesday

Scott Goodwillie’s Reluctant Gods

What is it about certain mythologies that lend themselves so well to visual interpretation? The museums are full of paintings that retell, and perhaps shed new light, on stories that we all know well.

New York-based artist Scott Goodwillie creates images both mythical and personal in Reluctant Gods, on exhibit through March 28 in Seattle’s Marni Muir Gallery in Pioneer Square

Many of the paintings in the exhibit feature Goodwillie’s long-time model Nicomis (Nikki) and highlight the work of art that she made of herself by adorning her long hair with ornaments until it reached her ankles. Goodwillie is quick to point out that the hair ornaments were all Nicomis’ doing, something that fascinated him from the first time that he saw her.

“She had everything in her hair for four years, just imagine! I made my best attempt to document all her accoutrements just as they were. It didn’t start off as a series but I realized a theme was in progress a few paintings in. I was idealizing her as my muse and started portraying her as a contemporary woman turned goddess.”

It is this realization that led to the exhibit’s theme and title of Reluctant Gods, and the use of Nicomis’ own artistic expression to further his. Goodwillie and his model discussed the role of art in human history and mythology, eventually creating pieces that were a modern take on these ideas.

The process was collaborative, and Goodwillie is willing to take turns directing and letting his model create the image. “Sometimes she would strike a pose and it would conjure something up, other times I would have something in mind,” he said.

One example of this process is the piece entitled “Nikki’s Demons” that portrays Nicomis, a modern rather than a classic beauty, having her hair feasted upon by cherubs. The idea for this work was inspired by the state of Nikki herself at the time.

“I noticed a shift in her mood,” Goodwillie explained. “Carrying ten pounds of jewels on her head was taking its toll.”

In “Downward Spiral” the cherubs have grown and are chasing Nikki down the stairs of a dilapidated building. It is the visual collapse of her pedestal, and shortly after the work was done, “she in reality did release herself by cutting her hair,” Goodwillie reveals.

He had also released himself in a way by creating a seventeen painting series documenting her rise and eventual rejection of her status as a modern idol. “The Tale of the Reluctant Goddess” features a new model who is unsure of the role that she has been handed. Continue…