The 100 Greatest Recordings Ever: #76, The Slits

Mia Zapata (2)

Mia Zapata (the Gits)
17.25" x 8.5"
oil on wood, 2010

Good weekend (in the studio.) I made one of my better paintings of the year so far. Painting is a mysterious business, its criteria elusive. What I do know about painting is that in order to achieve a quality that's fresh and new, you need to spent hours and hours in the studio, until the differentiation between the thinking mind, the painting, and the unconscious mind cedes to exist. I managed to do just that this weekend, I really painted, and the painting above of Mia Zapata is really a painting. Unlike most illustrations, a painting doesn't reproduce well. You really gotta see this one for real, the spirit of the person portrayed, the spirit of the painting, Joie de vivre! A few weeks ago (see Zapata post of July) I promised a brand new painting depicting Mia Zapata, the singer of the Gits. The painting, like last year's, illustrates the song While You're Twisting, I'm Still Breathing by the Gits. The song is found on the record Frenching the Bully (1992). The painting of Mia Zapata reminded me of a painting I did in 2004 of Ari Up, singer of the Slits. It was my favorite painting for the Top 100 2003 for the same reasons as this one of the Gits. To the right is a small reproduction of that Ari Up painting, it's about 16 inches tall, also done in oils.

The painting of Mia Zapata is based on a photograph by Lucy Hanna. More about this artist you can find on the following link. Check it out!
www.luhanna.com/photography