The Date by Fran Beallor

Representational artist Fran Beallor explains what inspired her to paint The Date piece.

The Date by Fran Beallor - as part of the series on arts by GeoBeats. I am Fran Beallor and I am an artist in New York City and this oil painting is called "The Date". You can see from the set up on the table that there is a letter, this is a letter of introduction. This blind date was setup in the days before the internet. You can also see that there are two cups on the table. There is a half eaten bagel, half drunk coffee. The date has been reading her book and you the viewer are actually suppose to be in the position of the date that has arrived and you have arrived late and she is not very happy about that. When I started this painting originally it was going to be just a portrait of a young woman in a Paris cafe. I have the two loose poster on the wall, and I had the red checked table cloth. The model who I hired to come and sit for this painting she had to leave New York and I was not able to finish her face and a friend came and tried to pose for it but it never work quite well and I took the painting and I put it way on my racks and I really did not look at it again for a couple years in fact I had forgot about it until one night I had a dream and in the dream I put a cat's head on her body and when I woke up I thought that is a little crazy, a cat's head but the idea really stuck with me. It was very compelling until I had no choice but I had to do it and so I got a cat and it is different painting a cat than painting a person. I was wondering how they was going to work together because a cat's proportion are so different from people. They have no chin, huge forehead and big eyes but I did it and I think it worked pretty well.