Norma Jeane Mortenson

Marilyn Monroe

"Stairway To Nowhere .....Just Elegant"

Pastel on Board

Image size approx 64 x 30cm

Was I in love with Norma Jeane Mortenson? At fourteen I couldn't say, but the Bus Stop poster on my bedroom wall may have had an opinion on the matter.

Even then I remember the conflicting emotions,  admiring the carefree, happy-go-lucky woman smiling down from that poster, while carrying a quiet sense of the tragedy of her passing. Two feelings that had no business existing together in a fourteen year old boy, yet there they were.

Fifty years on, I'm not sure I can believe in nowhere anymore. Today I'm fairly certain the stairway leads somewhere .... somewhere that may be... just elegant. 

Perhaps not quite so tragic after all.

The Seven Year Itch (1955) remains one of Marilyn Monroe's most iconic films. Directed by Billy Wilder, it is a comedy of temptation,  but Monroe's performance is something far more interesting than the plot deserves. As "The Girl," she is innocent and sensual in the same breath, carefree and yet somehow knowing. The most famous scene, white dress, subway grate, that smile.  has become one of the most reproduced images in the history of cinema.

What the cameras caught, and what this portrait attempts to hold, is something beyond the image. Monroe brought charm, humour and a quiet vulnerability to everything she did. She was much more than the world allowed her to be. In her eyes, if you look long enough, you can still see it.