Cecilia. Graphite on Bristol Vellum. Magdalena Astrid Dahlen.
The "Cecilia" portion of the image "Cecilia/Sonya" which graces our
home page:
Astrid, who accomplished both the graphite drawing
and the rendering of Sonya into the, ultimately scanned and
transmuted, asphaltum covered zinc plate, spent close to four months on
the Cecilia portion of the image.
BELOW : An earlier exploration of a digital print rendered from Astrid's "Cecilia" graphite drawing. It became superseded by the "Cecilia-Sonya" piece.
Within the most seemingly direct realistic renderings made by Astrid,
exist worlds within worlds of graphite elaborations.
Tsunamais and hurricanes blow
through a portrait by Astrid, often against her will.
In this drawing she had set out to do a simple realistic study from a
photograph in a magazine. Four months later Hiroshigean waves
erupted through the fields of graphite like a summer wind
through a plain of wheat.
The photograph in the magazine was actually an advertisement for Rolex watches in a magazine, like Vogue.
Yet Astrid often speaks of her anger regarding the exploitation of women. Others spoke of how such advertisements present a programmed ideal to which all women are conditioned to desire to attain.
Further research showed the advertisement photograph was of Cecilia Bartolli, an opera singer, an artist, like Astrid, and, who, in fact, in reality, looks far earthier and more real than the stylized photograph.
Suddenly there was a connection to this woman who sings her heart out in a far away land called Italy.
Cecilia: graphite improvisations upon the visage of Cecila Bartolli.
 CLICK HERE TO GO TO SONYA ETCHING PAGE.
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