The image on the left is a detail of the original Blue Boy by Thomas Gainsborough. The image on the right is a detail of what was hanging in my grandmother's house for years and has been hanging in my studio for over a year. I thought I had been looking at a copy of the original the whole time. Interesting.
What I find most interesting is that almost all of the Fine Art faculty (including art history) , numerous other faculty, administrators, and fellow students have seen this in my studio. Many have even commented on it. Did anyone even notice that it was a (bad) copy of a copy of a copy. Are we so accustomed to re-presentations, even bad ones, that they have become symbols? And as a symbol, is this copy hanging in my grandmother's house any different to her than the original? Does it even matter anymore?
Yes it does. There was a time in the recent past that it did not matter, but we have passed that threshold (or we are about to). This will be played out soon enough.
Enter The Ghost of Annlee.
