La L.A. Titania II (2012)
pencil, charcoal, black gesso on illustration board, 40 x 30 inches
Private Collection
In A Midsummer's Night Dream, like Los Angeles, things are not always how they seem to be. Crosthwaite has presented a re-imagined scene from Shakespeare's play as a metaphor for the City of Angels. Here, Titania, representing the notion of a utopian fairy-land - La la land - is awakening from her magically induced dream sleep. She opens her eyes and falls in love with the first thing she sees - the spell-cast donkey headed Nick Bottom. Ultimately, she transforms this undesirable man into her object of devotion, making love to him and thus freeing him from his mask. In the end, to protect the secret of the fairies existence, all of this fun and frivolity has been determined to be just an elusive dream.