ACQUISITION DATE: 2008
SOURCE: auction
OWNER HISTORY: 2(?)
DIMENSIONS: 19x26
STOCK: canvas
CREATION DATE: 2007
SIGNATURE: G Koufay
PUBLICATION: n/a
This stunning rendition of Vampi comes courtesy of Chris Theodosiou, with an assist from my buddy Jonathan Mueller. So right off the top I want to thank both gentlemen for making this happen. Please be sure to drop by their respective CAF galleries and say hello!
Anyway, about the painting. I’ve always enjoyed looking at the Koufay pieces that come up for auction on ebay. I always figured at some point I would end up getting one because I just found them to be very well done and very appealing. I especially like the celebrity likenesses he does, with Marilyn Monroe and Bettie Page being my favorites. So I always just assumed I would end up with either a Bettie or Marilyn piece. God knows I’ve come close to pulling the trigger on a couple of really sweet Marilyn pieces I’ve seen.
But leave it to me to be completely distracted by something I wasn’t even looking for! To be honest, I don’t even remember ever having seen another Koufay Vampi before! But since the title of this piece is VAMPIRELLA 2, I guess there’s a Vampi 1 floating around out there somewhere!
I think it’s sort of interesting how he chose to tilt and partially obscure her face. If he wasn’t so good at doing celebrity faces, you might think that he did this deliberately to avoid having to draw a face. But we all know better. I just like to think of it as an artistic “tease” on Koufay’s part. And it really works for me!
Anyway, my thanks again to Chris and Jonathan for all their help and cooperation. And an extra special thanks to Chris for the bazooka-proof packing and shipping! With all the horror stories on CAF about shipping mishaps (especially from overseas), it meant a lot to me for Chris to go the extra mile just to make sure it got here safely! Thanks man!
Oh, and one last bit of thanks to my pal K-Rod for the photoshop assist!
Last but not least, the vital stats! This is airbrushed acrylic on stretched canvas, measuring 19x26 and dated on the certificate as 2007.