"Paula Picassa"

Museum-quality giclée Epson matte paper | Sustainably sourced Ayus wood frame | Hanging hardware included

Paula Picassa is a work by the world’s most prolific prisoner artist Donald “C-Note” Hooker. The work is the prisoner artist’s rendition of makeup artist Kabuki’s fashion editorial is called “Picasso’s Women”. C’Note’s drawing is based on Kabuki’s selection of Picasso’s 1938 work `Bust of a Woman.’ Women are the muse of this prisoner artist. 2003 was the first season of the hit TV reality show, America’s Next Top Model; executive produced by American supermodel Tyra Banks. One of the prizes was a photo spread in Marie Claire. C-Note then ordered a subscription to the magazine. “I’m in one of the two remote prisons in California, we have to go into into a neighboring state just to get to prison. Where am I going to get my muses from?” The prisoner artist inquired. In 2009, he created `Colored Girl’. Colored Girl is a work based on an image published in the African American Magazine Hyper Hair. Although this muse is of a very famous African American woman, as the name of the work implies, Colored Girl is of a non descript Black woman. Public feedback from the African-American community has been overwhelmingly positive, as seen from the Black perspective, there are too few images of them in American culture. Seven years later, he created `Diana’. Diana is also a work from a fashion magazine image. Due to the success of Colored Girl, he used the same technique, and refers to Diana as Colored Girl Part II. Diana was inspired by a comment made by CBS This Morning host Gayle King, who said “I wish someone would cat whistle me”. Her comment was in response to fellow co-host Norah O’Donnell, who was complaining about being cat whistled. King, who is considerably older that O’Donnell, caused the prisoner artist to ask, “Who is cat whistling grandmothers?” Diana pays homage to the mature woman. The piece is specifically targeted towards the mature Caucasian woman. This is the constituency the prisoner artist assumed would most likely be patronizing the major museums in which he hopes to one day be exhibited in. In 2016, he created Life Without the Possibility of Parole, a body of work that raises awareness of the hundred and seventy-five women serving a sentence of LWOP at the Central California Women’s Facility. These work include a visual work, poem, paintoem, and play. The visual work includes a model from a fashion magazine, collaged into a prison cell he drew. Also in 2016, he created Black Love Matters. This work uses two collaged images, a Black model from a fashion magazine and a prison photo of the prisoner artist. .