You ain’t nothing but an American citizen.
At the beginning of the Apple Pie process, when I sat down to make a wish list of subjects, I suddenly realized that many of my friends growing up had been first or second generation Americans whose countries of origin were just what I was looking for. I’m not sure if that says something about the kind of people I chose to associate with as the child of an immigrant, or if it’s simply an indication of how many people in the US are recently from somewhere else. Either way, it made some of my subject searching a little easier!
I met Jimmy when we were in high school. He had one of those golden voices that made all the girls swoon, and I played one of a squad of “bobby” to his police captain in our high school’s production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Pirates Of Penzance. Taran-tara!
It was for his voice that I made Jimmy into Elvis. I considered painting Jimmy on black velvet since the King is so often depicted in that genre, but I made some rather pitiful attempts on swatches of the soft fabric and determined that painting on velvet requires the artist to manipulate the paint in a very particular way, leaving very little room for individual styles. I settled on simply using the frame from a mildewy velvet masterpiece which I’d purchased at a yard sale.
I also primed the canvas in black as a nod to the velvet. The black ground was difficult to work with, but, as in this case, well worth it.
I worked from a frontal and fairly neutral image of Jimmy. I wanted to evoke Chinese ancestor portraits to hint at Jimmy’s heritage.
It was for this same reason that I included the Terracotta Army figures in the composition.
China’s first emperor had an army to accompany him in his afterlife, so it only made sense that America’s one and only King should have one too.
Elvis’ army resembles—in form and in arrangement in the composition—figures in Aboriginal art. The reference is intentional, as are the other hints of native Australian art. Although Jimmy is ethnically Chinese, he immigrated to the United States from down under where his family had been living for two generations.
Gwenn Seemel
You Ain’t Nothing But An American Citizen (Australian-American, James Tuck-Lee)
2008
acrylic on canvas
39 x 29 inches
(detail below)
The title of the painting comes from the lines of Elvis’ “Hound Dog,” the famous 1956 remake of the blues song. In it, the King sings “you ain’t nothing but a hound dog, crying all the time.” I thought that an apt description of most of the population of the United States: we tend to be pretty good at voicing our discontent!
You Ain’t Nothing But An American Citizen in situ at the Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center for Apple Pie.
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CATEGORIES: - Process images - Apple Pie -
