the hairy eyeball
Hello! Thanks for making your way to my blog! I’ve been thinking for a while that I’d like to write about my art and what my experience of painting and sharing my work is like. I personally really enjoy learning about other creators’ processes, the highs and the lows, and the stories behind their works, so I figured I’d give it a go myself. I hope you enjoy! Let’s get right into it with my first subject: The Hairy Eyeball.
If you already follow my work, then you’ll know this painting is a bit of a departure from my usual subject matter. Typically there is food involved in my creations and that food almost always has a face. I generally try to convey a backstory and a personality in each character I paint, with my goal always being to bring joy to the viewer.
Enter: The Hairy Eyeball.
This painting is sort of in its own realm. It’s one of my lesser-known works and perhaps the least well-received. It seems to lack the charm of my usual characters. Plus, it’s not the prettiest thing to look at.
The painting depicts a lone eyeball with hair springing out from all over. It seems to be sporting a toupee - or perhaps that’s just how its hair grows? (I really like to leave important questions like this unanswered.) Surrounding the eyeball are words spelling out the title of the painting. I wanted this to feel a bit reminiscent of a horror movie poster, with big, shouting letters describing the terrible, horrible, scary star of the show: THE HAIRY EYEBALL *insert a black and white movie scene of a damsel in distress, hands on her cheeks, eyes wide, screaming in terror.*
I first heard the term “hairy eyeball” shortly after meeting my husband - let’s call him “Mike”, because that’s his name. “Did you see that? I think that lady just gave me the hairy eyeball,” he said.
One of the things that drew me to Mike in the beginning was his colorful way of speaking. He was born and raised in Florida by two first-generation Americans who were born and raised in New York City. He has spent a lot of his life working on and around boats, where smack-talk and jokes seem to be necessities for maintaining sanity when you’re covered in fiberglass resin in a sun drenched boatyard or anchored up in the middle of the ocean for 10 days at a time with just 1 or 2 other people.
The words Mike uses are an amalgamation of Southern charm and an unfiltered tell-it-like-it-is-ness (which keeps the Midwestern in me on my toes). He’s also got a very light-hearted approach to almost everything, making light of almost any given situation. Toss in some random Sicilian terms along with quotes from songs and movies he’s taken in over the years and you get a man with a colorful way of describing the world, to say the least.
As soon as I heard it, I knew what he meant. Imagine someone looking at you skeptically or sort of glaring - giving you the “stink eye” if you will. If you are the one delivering that look, with your eyes all squinched, your vision starts to get, well, a little hairy when your eyelashes get in the way. The term tickled me then and, years later, I was inspired to create the painting you see here.
I liked the idea of conveying the hairy eyeball as a villain or a monster. Like my husband, I believe life doesn’t need to be taken quite as seriously as we take it sometimes. One of my favorite song lyrics is from George Harrison: “It’s time we start smiling/What else should we do?” My intention with this painting was to point to just how much we can dramatize some of our interactions with others by taking things too seriously and wind up creating our own “terror” over minor, meaningless things.
Up until about a week ago, The Hairy Eyeball was living on the wall of a comedy club in Key West, where I’ve got other pieces on display. For three years, it hung in the club, watching and waiting, as some of my other paintings found new homes around it. Over the years, a few people have really enjoyed this painting. Mostly though it just seems to get looked overlooked.
Christmas market 2022
If all my paintings were children, this one sort of feels like a misunderstood middle child, moody and writing overtly dramatic poetic verses by candlelight. Others may see it and wonder, What’s the deal with this one?
I guess, in a way, it’s kind of fitting that this painting probably receives a lot of hairy eyeballs itself.
Maybe one day this painting will find itself a home. But for now, it’s back with me and with Mike, and we both agree; we really love our misunderstood, moody little hairy eyeball.
Thanks for reading!
