#O17ca14_”The Art Warrior: A Self-Portrait with the Artist’s Father as a Chimera”

This one-of-a kind original oil painting was begun by New Orleans artist Emilie Rhys May 17, 2014. The first photo provided here is the final image completed in April 2023. You can see what it looked like in September 2014 in the second photo provided here. The initial concept was a tiny self-portrait of the artist standing with her back to the viewer, a sketchpad in her left arm, drawing the scene to her left—notably, the famed "Skyscraper" building at the corner of St. Peter and Royal Streets in the French Quarter.

To the artist's right, crouching under what looks like the I.M. Pei entrance to the Louvre, is her artist father Noel Rockmore, depicted as a chimera. In life, he was a volcanic personality, in addition to being a great artist based in both NYC and New Orleans. He had left her and her family when she was eighteen-months-old, and they were not reunited till she was twenty. They had a troubled yet very close relationship, which endured to his death in 1995.

Back to the painting: She developed the image for months, stopping work on it at the end of September, 2014, unable to finish it. Years later, in 2019, she resumed work on the image, certain of one thing: her own depiction would have to become the dominant figure in the canvas. This she achieved, but still couldn't resolve the composition to her satisfaction.

On October 1, 2022 she again returned to "The Art Warrior" and months later, on April 24, 2023, the painting was at long last completed to the artist's satisfaction and pride. She had emerged triumphant, and dominates the image, obliterating the previous, diminutive self-portrait.

The image is painted on a stretched linen canvas surfaced with layers of brushed/scraped/poured oil ground, applied and fully dried prior to beginning the actual image. Ms. Rhys has been prepping canvases in this unique manner for circa forty years, greatly contributing to the richness of the final artwork.