Visiting Chicks Admire the Senora Rosa Dali Statue on the Avenue of Second Place Trophies in Richmond Virginia

Weird surrealistic title, huh? Well, in a fact-is-stranger-than-fiction twist, this almost happened here in Richmond, Virginia about 50 years ago. Salvador Dali was approached about making a statue for a Civil War Erz nurse, Capt. Sally Louisa Tompkins, using (and no I am not making this up!) pink aluminum. 

CLICK HERE TO READ THE NEWS STORY

Acrylic 

24x18

So I had fun combining Dali's signature style along with facets of this story...

That is why Senor Azul has become Senora Rosa just for this post, along with the requisite melting clock, waxy mustache, spindly legs and funky clouds.  I even put in a self portrait in Dali style, can you see it? 

While the Dali statue never came to be, there was one conceptual sketch made.

photo courtesy of Style Weekly Magazine

This is how his publicist described Dali's vision...

"according to a Richmond News Leader article, “Dalí sees (Captain Sally) as a kind of modern St. George and the dragon. The facial likeness would be as near as possible to Captain Sally, but the form of the actual body would depend on whether she wore a uniform or not...Probably the dragon will be an enlarged microbe of some kind, not the standard dragon of medieval times.” The entire structure would sit atop a 20-foot model of Dali’s pinky finger."

This is how it was received by the city council at the time ...

" How about Captain Sally drooling over a branch with one eye supported by a crutch and all in shiny aluminum with a red neon heart that really beats? Let’s tie a bow on Traveler’s tail and hold a happening in Capitol Square.”

quotes courtesy RVANews https://rvanews.com/news/richmond-salvador-dali-statue-folly/46807

So needless to say this statue never made it off the drawing board. But the chicks visit here, gave me a great opportunity to imagine and then paint...which is really what it is all about, right?

CLICK HERE TO SEE MORE OF MY ART