Bio

Molly B. Right

Right was born in 1963, in Greensboro, NC. She has lived in Charleston SC since 1969. She began painting in 1993, and is self taught.

Right’s subject matter has ranged from vignettes of her childhood to minimalist figurative works. More recently, her focus has been on questioning religious imagery most often painted on wood panel or metal surfaces bearing the theme “Jesus Saves”. These provocative theistic works turned the fertile ground from which Molly B. Right’s bottle cap works would eventually emerge. The super-sized images which began with Jesus and his mother Mary now include a host of iconic women who evoke at once an ethereal presence and an earthy grit.

ARTIST’S STATEMENT

This series of bottle cap pieces evolved from musings about the phrase “Jesus Saves”. Saves what? Does he just save souls? If he had the time or inclination, would he save string? Rubber bands? Would Jesus save bottle caps? Yeah. Somehow that became a full size bottle cap portrait of Jesus. Funny how one notion morphs into another. Now I’m doing bottle cap portraits of archetypal women that don’t have anything to do with Jesus saving anything. Now I’m the one who is saving bottle caps.

PROCESS

The bottle cap portraits begin with a painted portrait, on a piece of sheet metal. The caps are then glued to the painting, in such a way that they overlap, like the scales of a snake. The bottle caps date from the 30′s to the 70′s and are considered collectable on their own.
Particular attention is given to the craftsmanship, so that no traces of glue are visible. Transparent washes of glaze are often used to further define the image. Most of the portraits are 4′ x 5′ and weigh 60-70 pounds.