Marcelino Stuhmer “Masked Actress: Rita Cansino (Hayworth)”, oil on canvas, 24X24 inches,2014-2019, $2,500.00

In the painting Rita Hayworth and Carlsbad Cavern, 2014, the artificial light and color of an offset printed postcard of Carlsbad Cavern covers Rita Hayworth’s face completely. It is painted with a focus on specific light and color, while an impasto zigzag brushwork surrounding the postcard image references the blur of a television screen. The shift between the painted lens blur and the sharply painted image on top, makes the cavern image look like it literally floats in front of Rita Hayworth’s face. The image of Carlsbad Cavern, an underground cave that took millions of years to develop, is artificially lit by colored lights, making a sublime space of timeless natural forms to appear to be surreal and artificial. In this work, I focus on creating narratives that mask and mark personal and collective memory, history and identity. In “Masked Actress (Carlsbad Cavern), 2014-2019” the top half of movie star Rita Hayworth’s face is partially covered with a loosely painted image of a colorfully lit cavern. The contrast of painting techniques, at once abstract and photographic, explore “real” and “imaginary” modes of representation. Rita Hayworth’s cultural and ethnic Latina background (she was born Rita Carmen Cansino-Hayworth) has always been covered up. She was literally transformed by her first manager, from a black haired Mexican-American actress in Spanish language films into a light auburn-haired bombshell. Her hairline was surgically raised to make her look more Caucasian. Her constructed identity became an iconic, and enigmatic image, as mysterious as the underground cavern itself.