Gilding Gelsey

The first and last time I saw Gelsey Kirkland on stage was at Northrop Auditorium on the campus of the University of Minnesota. It was a tradition, now broken, I believe, for the Metropolitan Opera and the American Ballet Theater to take summer tours to a few locations around the country. On this particular occasion, Louise and I bought tickets for Swan Lake, with Gelsey Kirkland and Mikhail Baryshnikov as principal dancers. I had heard of Baryshnikov but not a whisper about Kirkland. I won't recite her long career and successes here. You can look them up yourself online. What I do want to say is that I fell madly in love with her. I had never seen such a supernatural creature dance. She could leap all the way to the sky and then float back to the stage. It was as if she was defying gravity. It was nothing short of miraculous. When the two dancers finished the ballet, with its dramatic finale, I was in tears. Gelsey Kirkland and Mikhail Baryshnikov were my heroes. 

This is all by way of introduction to my newest attempt at art. Louise and I have seen Klimt's painting, Adele in both Vienna and New York, where it now resides. It's a stunning piece, and I began thinking about gold leaf, and have since watched several videos on the art of applying gold leaf to a painting or to an object. My first attempt tonight was to create Gelsey Kirkland in gold leaf in the style of a Giacometti sculpture. My reason: it's a whole lot easier than doing a more finished piece. 

Now that's a lot of blather, but the background may make more sense to you now.