Porn Star Painter

A couple of weeks ago, I heard about painter L-dovico Marenzi. I sent him an email. He replied:

I have painted 25+ porn stars in various sizes from 33" x 22" to much larger 60" x 40". I even managed to persuade Larry flint to pose for me. The stars range from no name beginners to qualified giants such as Ron Jeremy, Jill kelly and Taylor wayne. The series also includes Gay stars such as blue blake and gay for pay stars such as Caesar. One of my large pieces was part of a recent show at MOCA.

This painting was exhibited at MOCA and has since been sold to an avid Los Angeles collector at the prestigious law firm of Arnold & Porter. It is 60" x 40" watercolor on paper.

Tuesday afternoon, July 26, 2005, we speak by phone.

L-dovico: "I had my first solo exhibit in December [at the Pasadena Museum of California Art]. I painted soap stars (General Hospital, Days of our Lives, etc). I wanted to do people who were extremely influential in American popular culture but didn't get the attention and respect they deserved.

"The next evolution of that was porn stars. I started three years ago. A year later, much to my disappointment, porn stars became famous and mainstream (the success of Jenna Jameson's book, the R-rated movie The Girl Next Door, etc). It became chic to talk about porn. Now it's, ok, you're a porn star, so what?

"I shot over 200 images of various porn stars. I took the best ones [and painted them]. I don't remember a lot of their names. I don't know the soap stars either or their characters.

"The good thing about doing porn stars is that they were eager to work with me. The soap people were difficult."

L-dovico took the vast majority of his photos at trade shows. "The two most professional people were Taylor Wane and Jill Kelly. Most of the girls and guys I worked with were extremely flaky, had no sense of time, maybe they were doing drugs... Young and being stars, or at least stars in their own mind. A lot of it had to do with that I wasn't paying them any money. One girl said you have to pay me. I sighed and said, how much do you want? She said, I want five dollars.

"Also, I'm married with a son. It was a strain. I was going to meet girls who take their clothes off for a living and have sex with people for money. My wife was going to stay home and watch the baby.

"She thought the idea was excellent and fully supported it. Then it crept in later. 'Well, was she pretty? Did she hit you?' The typical thing any woman or man would be concerned about if you were meeting people who did that for a living.

"I ended up saying, why don't you come along? She came along to a bunch. One was great. I was shooting Blue Blake. 'I said, Blue, why don't you take your clothes off? I want you to stand right here because the light is really good.'

"Catherine and I were sipping champagne. I've known Blue and his partner Harold for years. They're fabulous.

"Blue starts masturbating. I said, 'Blue, what are you doing?' He said, 'Darling, I want you to make me look really big.' Catherine is looking from the other end of the room. You know how girls go to a horror film and look through the end of their fingers? She was looking through her fingers and saying, 'Oh no, I can't look,' and having a really good look.

"I met this petite girl from Louisiana. She said, 'I'm going to be a massive star.' Why do think that? 'I have certain advantages.' Why? 'Because I'm so petite, I make the guys look really big.'

"Just as with the soap people, I didn't maintain relationships with them beyond what I was doing. Part of it was that I don't think they wanted to keep a relationship with me. None of them said, gosh, I want to see the work.

"A lot of the girls I shot had a hollow look to them. Other girls, this was what they wanted to do. They were passionate. They liked having sex. They enjoyed having men drool over them. Being the best anal artist. They took tremendous pride.

"If you don't know the porn world, you'd think it was filled with shame and disgust and pimps. Not at all. They're professionals like other people."