Self Portrait with Internal Landscape

Self Portrait with Internal Landscape

Cover | Colette Calascione

 

Self Portrait with Internal Landscape (oil on wood panel, 2004). Inspired by books and images of earlier eras—particularly the Victorian—Colette Calascione invents her own world. Usually riffing off (but not replicating) a pleasing image of a woman or child in an old photograph, Calascione shapes an original vision. For her many-layered oil paintings, she likes to undress clothed figures in photos to create an original mise-en-scène. Born in San Francisco in 1971, Calascione received her B.F.A. from the San Francisco Art Institute. She now lives as artist-in-residence on an old ranch deep in the wilderness of San Simeon, which also functions as a “monastery and wildlife sanctuary.” “After living in cities all my life it’s like living on another planet,” she says. “I wash my laundry in a creek while listening to my iPod and my neighbors go around dressed in dark-red-and-gold robes; it’s a bit twisted and quite lovely.” Calascione’s work can be seen online at Eclectix Gallery. For information about Calascione’s paintings, contact the Nancy Hoffman Gallery at nancyhoffmangallery.com; to contact the artist, or for inquiries about prints: calascione.com.

Faces of the East Bay