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| "Man on Fire," acrylic on canvas, 2025. This is a painting by the artiste Otto Von Miller, who is also Thee Optimist. |
The above work, "Man on Fire," has been interpreted by various people as:
- a portrait of the Devil, which it definitely isn't;
- a man who knows he is on fire, and is resigned to his fate;
- a man who works in corporate America, and doesn't even know that the world around him is burning, and that he himself is the one who started the fire.
If Otto had to choose one interpretation of this painting as the most accurate, he would pick the third one.
The truth is a little more prosaic, in any case.
Otto was looking through artworks by one of his favorite painters, the delightfully weird Paul Klee, and decided to do a rip on one of his final paintings, called "Death and Fire."
Klee made the painting in 1940, the year of his death. He was suffering from a painful and debilitating auto-immune disorder.
Among other (more deadly) problems, the disease attacked his joints and turned his hands into something like claws, making it hard to hold a paint brush.
His late paintings often look like hieroglyphics, which Klee had an interest in. The clever eye can also see the influence he had on popular 1980s New York City painter Keith Haring.
One of the themes of this painting is the German word for death ("Tod"), which appears in a few places. Most obviously, you can see it as the mouth and eyes in the man's skull.
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| "Death and Fire," oil paint and colored paste on burlap, 1940 by Paul Klee. |
As mentioned previously, Thee Optimist is no Paul Klee.
"Man on Fire" is entirely too literal, compared to Klee's painting. Notice how Klee suggests fire, without actually depicting it. Notice how much more ghoulish and dead-looking his skull-headed man is, too.
Truth is, Otto's man was pretty dead-looking to begin with, but he didn't like it, so he put sunglasses on the guy.
When Otto Von Miller does a rip on something, it's not intended to be slavishly similar to the original.
That would be like Thee Optimist joining a rock band, and playing Steve Miller covers note for note for aging rockers getting drunk and dancing in south Florida.
Thee Optimist wouldn't do that.
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| Early Otto Von Miller rip on Paul Klee. Notice the dead eyes. |
More Lovely, Beautiful Art
Admittedly, this is a pretty light blog post, but what are we supposed to do?
They can't all ramble on endlessly, can they?
In the spirit of continuing (you clicked on this, the least I can do is give you something to chew on), here are a couple more paintings Otto has worked on recently:
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| "Lighthouse," acrylic on canvas, 2025 by Otto Von Miller. |
The above is a rip on a painting by the exceptional watercolorist and political cartoonist, Garry Hamilton.
Garry is a friend of mine, so hopefully he doesn't mind me ripping him off. I'd show you the painting this one is based on, but I'm planning to do a thorough post on Garry's work at a later date.
Garry's from Canada, which means he's irritated at the United States right now. Can't say I blame him.
We need that Arctic coastline, though, so...
Anyway.
One last painting, which maybe you will enjoy. It's really a small study for a future larger painting I'm hoping to do.
It's a rip of a sculpture that is out on the grounds in front of someone's house near where Thee Optimist lives.
There are a lot of rich people around here, and a few of them are so rich, they commission what amount to public art works.
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| "The Lovers," acrylic on canvas, 2025 by Otto Von Miller. |
Q: Why do you constantly rip off the work of other artists?
A: They are better than me, and I am trying to learn a little something from their genius-tier ability.
Words of Wisdom
"Every artist was first an amateur."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
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