Susanne Nielsen's "Hollywood" Goat - created
for the Grady Goat Foundation's Project G.O.A.T. -
Global Offensive Against Trafficking.
Florida Artist Scott Joseph Moore created the original sculpture. The quote of the foundation, that "Bill Gates wrote, that goats are helping to empower women in the poorest areas of India - a country where women are frequently trafficked for purposes of sexual exploitation and forced labor.." was the incentive to work with the foundation to volunteer as artist.
This project is both Humanitarian and fun, as the goats are painted, then find ambassadors and sponsors - the Grady Goat Foundation works with Humanitarian causes such as the fight against Human Trafficking and child Abuse.
The theme for me was Hollywood stars, the Hollywood sign and I added the star for the foundation owner's favorite star, Marilyn Monroe. Similarly Marilyn and Audrey Hepburn both are among the stars featured on the goat.
The autograph cards and the unforgettable beauties of the Golden Era of Hollywood -
were inspiration. The B/W glamour shots and old posters had found colorful representations as they covered the back of the fiberglass sculpture. From stars to starlets to girl next door - and a very festive goat, all the glitz also points to the often difficult lives of women in Hollywood. Careers that were not so glamorous as they seem.
Here are some of the biographies of these stars, considered the very best in the Golden Era of film, the stuff of technicolor and in people's dreams!
Hollywood Goat - An Introduction:
Susanne Nielsen took a journey through Hollywood and
captured her impressions in form of old autograph cards and photographs, which she colored inspired by the star photos
of Natalie Wood and Marilyn Monroe – red lips and rosy cheeks, blond to
brunette - with their deep and longing
gazes – the studio look of the glamour queens of the Golden Era of Hollywood –
the 1940s and 50s.
The main “Leading
Ladies” are: (information from Wikipedia)
Ava Gardner
(December 24, 1922 – January 25, 1990) was an American actress and singer.
Gardner was signed to a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1941, and appeared
mainly in small roles until she drew attention with her performance in The
Killers (1946). She was nominated for the Oscar for Best Actress for her work
in Mogambo (1953), and also received BAFTA Award and Golden Globe Award
nominations for other films.
Gardner appeared in several high-profile films from the
1940s to 1970s, including The Hucksters (1947), Show Boat (1951), Pandora and
the Flying Dutchman (1951), The Snows of Kilimanjaro (1952), The Barefoot
Contessa (1954), Bhowani Junction (1956), On the Beach (1959), 55 Days at
Peking (1963), Seven Days in May (1964), The Night of the Iguana (1964), The
Bible: In the Beginning... (1966), Mayerling (1968), Tam-Lin (1970), The Life
and Times of Judge Roy Hampton Court Maze (1972), Earthquake (1974), and The
Cassandra Crossing (1976). Gardner continued to act regularly until 1986, four
years before her death in London in 1990, at the age of 67. She is listed 25th
among the American Film Institute's 25 Greatest Female Stars of Classic
Hollywood Cinema.
Natalie Wood
(born July 20, 1938 – November 29, 1981) was an American actress who began her
career in film as a child and became a Hollywood star as a young adult. Wood
received three Oscar nominations before she was 25. She began acting in films
at age 4 and was given a co-starring role at age 8 in Miracle on 34th Street
(1947).[2] As a teenager, she earned a nomination for the Academy Award for
Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Rebel Without a Cause (1955),
followed by a role in John Ford's The Searchers (1956). She starred in the
musical films West Side Story (1961) and Gypsy (1962), and she received
nominations for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performances in
Splendor in the Grass (1961) and Love with the Proper Stranger (1963). She was
married to actor Robert Wagner. Her films represented a "coming of
age" for her and Hollywood films in general. Critics have suggested that
Wood's cinematic career represents a portrait of modern American womanhood in
transition, as she was one of the few to include both child roles and roles of
middle-aged characters. Wood drowned off of Catalina Island on November 29,
1981, at age 43.
Audrey Hepburn
(born 4 May 1929 – 20 January 1993) was a British actress and humanitarian.
Recognized as a film and fashion icon, she was ranked by the American Film
Institute as the third-greatest female screen legend in Golden Age Hollywood,
and was inducted into the International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame. She
rose to stardom in the romantic comedy Roman Holiday (1953), alongside Gregory
Peck, for which she was the first actress to win an Oscar, a Golden Globe
Award, and a BAFTA Award for a single performance. She went on to star in a
number of successful films, such as: Sabrina (1954), in which Humphrey Bogart
and William Holden compete for her affection; Funny Face (1957) a musical in
which she sang her own song parts; the drama The Nun's Story (1959); the
romantic comedy Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961); the thriller-romance Charade
(1963), opposite Cary Grant; and the musical My Fair Lady (1964), which won the
Academy Award and BAFTA for Best Picture. In recognition of her film career,
she received BAFTA's Lifetime Achievement Award, the Golden Globe Cecil B.
DeMille Award, the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award, and the Special
Tony Award. She remains one of only 15 people who have won Academy, Emmy,
Grammy, and Tony Awards.
Lauren Bacall
(born September 16, 1924 – August 12, 2014) was an American actress known for
her distinctive voice and sultry looks. She was named the 20th-greatest female
star of classic Hollywood cinema by the American Film Institute and received an
Academy Honorary Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in
2009 "in recognition of her central place in the Golden Age of motion
pictures". Bacall began her career as a model before making her film debut
as a leading lady in To Have and Have Not (1944). She continued in the film
noir genre with appearances with Humphrey Bogart in The Big Sleep (1946), Dark Passage
(1947), and Key Largo (1948), and she starred in the romantic comedies How to
Marry a Millionaire (1953) with Marilyn Monroe and Betty Grable, and Designing
Woman (1957) with Gregory Peck. She co-starred with John Wayne in his final
film The Shootist (1976) by Wayne's personal request. Their daughter Leslie
Howard Bogart (born August 23, 1952) from the marriage to Humphrey Bogart is
named after the actor Leslie Howard and is a nurse and yoga instructor.
Susanne with her Bengali Brides project, stemming from her South Asian experience in the early 2000s. There she worked with Rotary on local, regional, and global grants to support a number of Humanitarian causes from cancer clinic, an orphanage and a sewing training center for women.
Thanks for the opportunity to contribute art to this project to the Grady Goat Foundation in December of 2019.
Susanne Nielsen, PhD
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