Top, Keri Schroeder stands near some of her work on display at Gallery MTZC in downtown Las Vegas. Grace McDaniels, "The Mule Faced Woman," is one of Schroeder?s portraits on display at Gallery MTZC.Jacob kepler/VIEW
Top, Keri Schroeder stands near some of her work on display at Gallery MTZC in downtown Las Vegas. Grace McDaniels, "The Mule Faced Woman," is one of Schroeder?s portraits on display at Gallery MTZC.Jacob kepler/VIEW
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Artist Keri Schroeder said she has always been intrigued by the stars of the old-time sideshows -- Siamese twins and bearded ladies.
But, she said, after painting her portrait series of human sideshow attractions, "In the Kingdom of the Blind: Traditional Portraits of Extraordinary People," now on display at Gallery MTZC in Commerce Street Studios, some of the little known historical figures in her series have become personally important to her.
"They're characters that interact with my life," said the Las Vegas native, who graduated from the Las Vegas Academy in 2001, where she studied painting and photography.
"I think when you are working on the portrait, you become aware of every single, tiny line or dimple on their face. It does create a connection," she said.
Especially meaningful are the stories of Joseph Merrick, better known as the Elephant Man, and Grace McDaniels, who was known as the Mule-Faced Woman. Before Schroeder began any of the portraits in the series, she researched the life of her subject.
Grace McDaniels won an "ugliest woman" contest and was hired to work in a sideshow because of the tumors that grew on her face.
McDaniels had an ordinary, handsome son who grew up to be a physically abusive alcoholic and McDaniels' manager. For Schroeder, the most compelling part of McDaniels' story is the profound sweetness of character attributed to her in the accounts of her life.
Likewise, Merrick stands out for her as a man who faced the adversity of a disease that deformed half his body without bitterness. Immortalized in film and on stage, he's remembered as a gentle and intelligent soul who answered insensitive questions with a moving poem that ended with the words, "The mind's the measure of the man."
"People are jerks," said Schroeder, who can identify with her subjects, but isn't sure she could match their compassion.
"These people didn't stoop to their level," she said.
Another favorite of hers is Johnny Eck, born without legs. Eck was a composer and pianist, appeared in films and, apart from his own act, performed in his two-legged twin brother's magic show. At the time of her interview, Schroeder was working to complete a second painting of Eck showing him acrobatically balancing on one hand.
Schroeder has a collection of books on sideshow performers and uses Internet resources, but, in some cases, only very little -- or contradictory -- information is available on a performer. The Hilton sisters, conjoined twins Violet and Daisy, lashed out when they came of age, claiming the rosy bio published by their adoptive guardian and manager was completely false.
Since Schroeder tries to rely on photographs of her subjects as much as possible, the dearth of historical documents can be frustrating. If the only available photos of a subject are too damaged, she usually won't do the painting.
"It doesn't seem fair," she said.
Even when a few photos can be found, Schroeder will flesh out her portraits using descriptions from historical accounts and the subjects' own self-descriptions. She noted that Merrick seemed to have a sense of humor about himself, describing his own face in terms of hills, valleys and "teacups" growing from his head.
She began the series of 18 paintings and pen-and-ink drawings in 2005 and has shown them in smaller groups at the now-closed Gallery Au Go Go, and in her own now-closed gallery in Commerce Street Studios, Against the Wall.
This is the first time all of the paintings will be shown together, and it may be one of the last. There is another show planned for the Arts Factory this coming January and a few other pieces she would like to complete, but soon, she said, she would like to start another series of portraits focusing on writers and artists.
"People don't know what the actual artists looked like," she said.
When asked why she focuses on portraits, Schroeder recalled an essay on portraiture by 16th century German painter Hans Holbein. Holbein held that when you painted someone's portrait, you had control over how they were remembered.
The modern-day portrait artist said there wasn't any one event that led her to begin the "Kingdom of the Blind" series. She grew up hearing her mother tell her about the sideshows she saw as a young woman.
Her mother told her about such characters as Percilla Bejano, the Monkey Girl, who had hair growing over her entire body. Schroeder had read about the lives of sideshow performers for years, and one day she started painting them.
The traditional portraits are rendered in black oil paint and set against a colored acrylic background, and the ink drawings are done with fine-point drafting pens.
MTZC gallery owner and fan of Schroeder's Mark Zeilman commented that "some of them look like they were painted in another era."
Not everyone who sees Schroeder's work instinctually shares in her feelings of empathy and connection. Once, a woman meant to compliment Schroeder by telling her the portraits were "hilarious."
That's why this time, as she has in past shows, Schroeder hung the paintings with small mirrors in between them.
For more information on "In the Kingdom of the Blind," visit www.mtzc.com.
Gallery MTZC is open 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays and by appointment. Commerce Street Studios is located at 1551 S. Commerce Street.
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