Luck Be A Lady (Medium)

“Luck Be A Lady” is a collaboration painting by Wyland and Steve Diossy. Steve had the following story to tell about these first collaborations with Wyland.

The inspiration behind “Luck be a Lady” is the time that Wyland played Texas Hold’em with Willie Nelson. I wanted to commemorate the occasion for our first collaboration. There is a photo of the two of them, and I loved the look of both in the picture, so I wanted to create a character for Willie, Wyland and then I added myself in. Even though I wasn’t there, I imagined how fun it would be.

Willie is represented by the turtle and he’s enjoying some excellent “sea – weed”. He’s also sitting next to the beautiful mermaid because if Willie Nelson is hanging out with you, you must make sure he gets the best seat in the house! To the other side of Willie, is Wyland’s dolphin, and then next to him is the Mad Mahi who is my character, and occasionally my alter-ego. You, as the viewer, are playing a hand as the octopus. The octopus is very close to having a Royal Flush, but it’s not quite happening…

In my mind, the story behind this scene is that the mermaid has sunk the pirate ship in the background with her siren’s song, then she took all the gold from the pirates and that’s what she’s gambling with. The mermaid has a map under her hand that shows the Caribbean and Southern Florida, and the path of the boat is on the map too. It’s heading toward the Treasure Coast which is where I grew up. There is also a warning on the map about the mermaids along the route. Maybe the pirates never made it to the Treasure Coast, maybe they ran into the sirens on the way back – we’ll never know. I also put tribute to Jimmy Buffet on the map – one of my favorite songs is ”A Pirate Looks at Forty” – it ties into the piece and the pirate theme. The final piece is a visual representation of how much fun I imagine it would be to play poker with Willie Nelson and Wyland.

Click here to see the companion collaboration piece “Card Sharks“