Angelina Jolie Reaches Sainthood

What would Angelina Jolie and her children — Maddox, Zahara, and Shiloh — look like depicted as saints, virgins, and cherubs? Kate worked out her own depiction of them on an 88' x 60? oil & acrylic on linen in a painting called “Blessed Art Thou.” Here’s how she describes the painting:

This painting addresses the celebrity worship cycle. The title, “Blessed Art Thou”, is taken from a line in the Catholic prayer “Hail Mary”: “…blessed art thou among women”. Our culture is deifying celebrities, but in the bible, it is the meek who are blessed, so the title presents a question for the viewer to ponder.

I chose a setting where the cycle begins: psychologically oppressive environments like this one are the source for the consumer, hungry for “information” about the celebrity. I am interested in the psychological ramifications of celebrity worship, particularly as they relate to class.

Angelina Jolie was chosen as the subject because of her unavoidable presence in the media, the world-wide anticipation of her child, her “unattainable” beauty and the good that she is doing in the world through her example, which adds another layer to the complicated questions about her “deification”.

The “Virgin” and Zahara figures are loosely based on a Van Dyck Virgin painting, and the Maddox figure’s pose is borrowed from a Raphael painting.

The artwork will be on display at the Chelsea Galleria booth at the Art Miami Fair at the Miami Beach Convention Center, January 5-8th. Kate will be at the fair Friday & Saturday.

Click on the thumbnails below for more detail. Wal-Mart is depicted as… hell.