Nicholas Harper's portrait of me

I am extremely honored that my favorite local painter, Nicholas Harper, just painted a portrait of me, currently on display at Rogue Buddha Gallery in NE Minneapolis. In it I'm wearing a custom dress and leather belt by local designer Kerry Riley of Needle & Black, which I had commissioned for my friends Beth and Brian's wedding last fall.


Harper gained national notoriety for his award winning paintings and gallery, the Rogue Buddha, has has been featured in numerous local, national and international publications including CNN where he was named as an artist to watch and most recently in GQ Magazine. I spotlighted some of Harper's work in an earlier post on Le Petit here.

A look at local painter Nicholas Harper

Number 87 in City Pages' 100 Creatives interview series is my favorite local painter, Nicholas Harper. In 2007, CNN named Harper one of the top 10 up-and-coming artists from around the world, and his gallery Rogue Buddha has been named one of the top galleries in the country by GQ. I had the honor and distinct pleasure of sitting for a portrait for Harper, who told me he will be creating not one but two portraits of me in the coming months, wearing this custom Needle & Black by Kerry Riley design.

"Susannah"

There is definitely a connecting element to Harper's work to the world of fashion. I recently stumbled upon a photo spread by Swiss/Italian photographer Christian Tagliavini, which seems to emulate Harper's signature surrealist long necks and Victorian styling.

I wanted to take the occasion to share some of Harper's work, which definitely is a personal inspiration of mine.

"Collette"

"Paris"

"Odessa"

And for comparison sake, a photograph by Tagliavini: