It is rare that one of my paintings derives from literature, so The Mistress and Her Donkey is triply rare. When given the opportunity to participate in a Shakespeare-themed show that Josine Ianco-Starrels was curating in Oregon, I began thinking about which of his many plays I should utilize. My mind kept returning to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, probably because at about age thirteen I’d seen a production of it on PBS that greatly impressed me. All the fairy girls barely had any clothing on!

By the time I had narrowed the play down to the character Bottom, and his famous dream sequence, I had a vision for the painting: a darkened stable contrasting the coarse black hair of a donkey with the brightly lit and perfectly formed bottom of a female model. For her I used Sara Streeter, an art model famous here in LA, and whose form I’ve drawn more than any other living creature’s.

Residing in the middle of a gigantic city, I figured finding the donkey would be more difficult. I asked my painting class at Art Center if anyone knew where I could find a donkey in LA. One student raised his hand, “Well, my friend’s dad has a donkey rescue service…” They had about 50 donkeys, and taught me a little about these mischievous animals as I gathered the information I’d need for the painting. I took photos, videos, and sketches to Maine, and began to work on the painting twelve hours a day for the next several weeks.

F. Scott Hess

Bottom’s Dream, from A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM by William Shakespeare

I have had a most rare
vision. I have had a dream, past the wit of man to
say what dream it was: man is but an ass, if he go
about to expound this dream. Methought I was—there
is no man can tell what. Methought I was,—and
methought I had,—but man is but a patched fool, if
he will offer to say what methought I had. The eye
of man hath not heard, the ear of man hath not
seen, man’s hand is not able to taste, his tongue
to conceive, nor his heart to report, what my dream
was. I will get Peter Quince to write a ballad of
this dream: it shall be called Bottom’s Dream,
because it hath no bottom; and I will sing it in the
latter end of a play, before the duke:
peradventure, to make it the more gracious, I shall
sing it at her death.