Piano
in the
Rain

2012

Oil on canvas
223.5 x 213.4 cm (88 x 84 inches)

Bronzini Vender Family Collection

Piano
in the
Rain

2012

There is a painting, Piano in the Rain, in the show. I wanted the woman’s body to sort of take up the same space in the canvas as the piano. I felt like her body had almost the same objectness as the thing that she was playing. And I thought she should have bare feet, because that seemed to make sense in the rain. There was a great performance by Chan Marshall on David Letterman, and just the way her shirt flopped on her arms was so fantastic! So I was interested in that. Sometimes I’ll look to the world to get information, things that I’ll notice, or sometimes it is almost like casting: you’ll try to think “oh, who should be in this painting?” or “what’s the weather like?” I think those are ways for me to begin to make a painting.