ACRYLIC ON WOOD • triptych of 8″ x 8″ panels
$240 • Email julie@juliemeridian.com to buy this artwork ⇢

Here’s a triptych of paintings I created based on the theme of the 2018 Works/San José member show: Infinite Memes. When I saw the theme I immediately thought of rickrolling and wanted to create something based on that.

I re-watched the video and couldn’t decide which look I wanted to show, so I picked three. I figured that had the highest likelihood of someone recognizing what they are in case they mostly remember one (for me it’s the black mock turtleneck and tan trenchcoat). These also gave the feel of the little back-and-forth dance he’s doing during the video.

I’ve done a number of paintings from less-than-ideal and low-res photos, and I like the challenge of extracting something painterly and interesting from them. These were screenshots from YouTube. While I wanted to preserve the look of each setting, I chose a limited color palette to unify them. I liked how the dark slate gray looked on it’s own so I left it flat, in contrast to the detail on the rest of the painting.

Never Gonna Give You Up I • 8" x 8"
Never Gonna Give You Up I • 8″ x 8″
Never Gonna Give You Up II • 8" x 8"
Never Gonna Give You Up II • 8″ x 8″
Never Gonna Give You Up III • 8" x 8"
Never Gonna Give You Up III • 8″ x 8″