Virginia Banderas in Desperado 2014

Curator: Felice House's 2014 oil painting, "Virginia Banderas in Desperado," certainly grabs your attention. It's quite a compelling image, isn’t it? What are your initial impressions? Editor: Definitely. The mood is heavy, almost mournful. There's a vulnerability in the woman’s face that conflicts with the revolvers she holds. The composition directs the viewer's eyes upward towards her face, which has this haunting quality about it. Curator: It’s fascinating how House utilizes oil paint here. The materiality gives a richness and depth that resonates with the work's emotional texture. You can see the deliberate brushstrokes and how they contribute to the figure's construction but it feels very direct and approachable, accessible. Editor: Absolutely, the "Desperado" iconography is hard to miss – guns blazing, but with this modern gaze, it turns the expected wild west representation into something much deeper, especially with that name...it connects immediately to that cultural mythology of heroism and loneliness. There's almost this echo of vulnerability behind the gaze of the female subject that creates an intriguing conversation about gender roles and heroism. Curator: Yes, looking at the labor that goes into each stroke and also the artistic labor of sourcing the reference… This series, *Re-Westerning*, directly tackles the whitewashed and masculine narratives inherent in Western genre painting. House is very explicitly positioning women within these narratives. Consider also how our consumption of those narratives might evolve alongside shifting gender roles, and ideas surrounding work and performance of character in the American west. Editor: That’s right. By placing women in traditionally male roles within the Western genre, the artist calls into question existing iconographic portrayals within that genre and how societal assumptions are passed down to modern women through symbolism. We now can view familiar concepts like "strength" or "justice" through a far more personal lens as opposed to societal archetypes which have already been ingrained throughout culture from the moment we begin observing images. Curator: I'm thinking about the broader impact of the material presentation: The piece presents both realism and a certain distance – it creates accessibility to engage with, even potentially revise, the symbols. Editor: It definitely invites reflection. We come to this image expecting a familiar heroic, confident character from the American West and we get a complex range of emotions instead, along with an echo of this archetype we expect. Curator: Food for thought on the materials and social framework with which we approach historical contexts! Editor: A great example of the ways iconography challenges our cultural memory and social conventions, inviting reflection, which leads to deeper insights!