William Henderson August 27, 2008
Fab Faces
The Re-Imagination of Legendary Pop Icons
Three years ago, Tim Otte walked into the then-forthcoming Ma-Tini’s Cabaret, introduced himself to the owner, and said, I think you need something on your walls. He had only been sketching and painting portraits for something like six months, he said. It was ballsy, his decision to suggest the owner hire him for the job.
But when the owner told Otte, yes, you’re right. Do you think you can paint a series of gay icons? Otte considered for about half a second and said, yes. Sure, I can do that.
“And then I went home and said, oh my God, I need to figure out how to do these portraits,” recalled Otte during a recent telephone interview.
The resulting eight paintings featured iconic singers such as Judy Garland, Bette Midler, Cher and Liza Minelli, and they proved as popular as the club itself. Soon, Otte was fielding phone calls from patrons who wanted him to paint one for them, and ever since, says Otte, it’s been “a roller coaster,” which has landed him, at least through the end of the summer season at Whaler’s Wharf in Provincetown, where he has available for sale more than 30 paintings of some of our favorite entertainers: Miss Richfield, Varla Jean Merman, Dina Martina, Coco Peru, Margaret Cho, Lea Delaria, Janet Jackson, Sarah Jessica Parker, Mae West, Madonna (circa 2008) and Sandra Bernhard.
His re-imaginations are rendered in bright acrylic paint, enriched with pastels, charcoal, pencil and pigmented glazes, and are quite unlike anything we’ve seen before. Otte frames each painting in a one-of-a-kind industrial-inspired frame which he designs and embellishes with steep spikes, nails, chains, ceramic spheres, and hand-painted metallic highlights in silver, copper, bronze, gold and pewter
"My frames come after, and more importantly, from, the finished pieces they compliment,” says Otte. “I present art and frame together as singular creative expression — inseparable, each incomplete without the other.”
Which could be said of Otte and his paintings. Having come out as a gay man in the early 90s, Otte says that working with imagery of drag queens and gay icons has given him a way in which to express himself, while at the same time introducing into his life a sense of joy and freedom, perhaps even completion.
“I’ve probably got a drag queen in me who is never coming out,” he says. “Until I do, though, I’ll just paint them.”
Otte has a long list of entertainers he’d like to paint. Capturing Madonna, for instance, in each of her incarnations is near the top of his list. There’s just something about her. And then there is Liz Taylor, one of the only people Otte has unsuccessfully painted. There is a finished painting, just don’t ask to see it. He isn’t happy with it, and only when he is happy with a finished painting does he make them available. Otte professes an interest in refining and perfecting his collection of divas and drag queens, he does take requests — sometimes he’s asked to paint an entertainer he had never considered, and there has been the occasional request to paint someone’s relative in his distinctive style.
“Not everything I do are gay icons necessarily, but it’s funny. I never intended to be this portrait person, but I really do enjoy it. I relate to the portraits and I tend to — well, during the time I work on the piece, I’ll get online and look at tons of pictures about people, reading about them, watching Youtube stuff, I become obsessed,” admits Otte. “Sometimes I have dreams about somebody I’m working on, It’s funny how the mind works.”
//Otte’s “Art In the Rear: Divas, Divos and Drag Queens” will be on display at Whaler’s Wharf through the end of the summer season. He will host two meet-the-artist receptions on Thursday, August 28 and Saturday, August 30 from 6-9 p.m. For more information go to www.timottestudios.com.
