Muse offers a contemporary twist on the historical relationships between women referred to as muses and the artists they inspired. The photographs of the artists and muses were reworked to enhance a somewhat surreal quality. Each pairing is set against a background that is either geographically correct and or fits in a psychological manner. All of the subjects in this historically based series are from an era in art during which the muse was considered to be a source of great inspiration. My fascination was in what the subjects looked like and the pairing of the particular muse or muses with each artist. I strive to hint at the relationships, which were at the core of the muse-artist arrangement. While each of the pairings became famous and often romanticized I hope to peel always the veneer and see them side-by-side as the people they were.

A muse is more about the inspiration they are able to evoke in another human being, than about their physical appearance. A muse inspires and stirs the blood by their presence. It is the personality of the muse, perhaps charismatic, but in some way with the capacity to light a fire in the artist. There are women who functioned as a muse for multiple artists while others were a muse to only one. In some cases the muse was a model, a wife, a companion or a lover. Some were beautiful others were not. Many went on to become great artists in their own right. Regardless of all else at the core is the ability of one human being to inspire another as if to stir the creative juices.

The artist will feel deeply the need to express what they have felt or captured in the muse. One wonders whether a woman considered a muse has the innate ability to connect with the particular artist at some deep level as if to hold up a mirror to the artist and show him a hidden part of himself. The muse has a magnetism, not felt by all artists, but only be select ones.