SKYE’S THE LIMIT
Byline: Marcy Medina
LOS ANGELES — Although midsummer is normally the time that actors cool their heels here, Ione Skye has been busy polishing her latest role: artist.
Her first solo show at Les Deux Cafe’s adjoining Mediarare Gallery on Friday night drew a crowd of 700, among them Sofia Coppola, Spike Jonze, Cameron Diaz and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Mediarare director Laurie Frank first learned of Skye’s work when she met her at a wedding shower for Coppola in 1998. “The minute I walked into Ione’s house, it was a revelation. I couldn’t wait to do a show,” says Frank, who has also shown the works of director Mike Figgis, Yul Brenner and Gisela Getty. “I thought it would be interesting to distill that vision of Hollywood the media tends to portray and give people another look at someone they might know in a different context.”
Skye, 31, who was never formally trained in art, says she surprised herself when she began to paint. “Drawing was the first artistic thing I went toward as a child. When I was a kid, I loved Maxfield Parish. And when I got older, I had my Gustav Klimt phase and I was really inspired by Balthus,” explains Skye. “But about 10 years ago, my husband at the time (Beastie Boy Adam Horovitz) was recording an album and working all day and night. I was alone a lot and I had some paints in the house.”
Her first subject was a 1930s Chinese porcelain bust that Horovitz had given her. “I just sat down one day and copied it and it came out. I thought, ‘Wow, this is so cool.’ Then I started painting like crazy.”
Skye’s 33 canvases, spanning the last decade, are as diverse as they are appealing. Though many of them depict family and friends, Skye admits, “I’m a little in awe of Asian things. Some of my paintings are inspired by beautiful pictures in National Geographic.” Her larger canvases, which call to mind Gaugin’s Tahitian exoticism without the female subjects, are simply trees in her Los Feliz neighborhood or vistas of nearby Laurel Canyon. “I don’t really have much desire to draw grown women. Whenever I do, it comes out looking strange,” she explains.
She also paints babies and young boys, an added bonus since she’s now four-and-a-half months pregnant. (The father is her boyfriend, interior architect David Netto.) “I’m sure I’ll be painting the baby a lot,” she laughs.
Though her career as an artist is taking off, Skye says she’s not about to give up acting. “I’ve had people say, ‘You should just paint. Acting is beneath you.’ But I think acting is totally honorable. I couldn’t not act.” In fact, her latest film, the indie flick “Free,” premieres this week.
But for now, Skye’s mind is focused on art and commerce. “I hope things sell. It seems funny to me that somebody would want to buy a picture of my brother or my ex-husband, but if I have the urge to paint something really personal, I’ll do it anyway.”