Why Rachel Anna Simon Can’t Stop Painting Spider-Man Getting Head

For over 20 years, the upside-down kiss from the 2002 Spider-Man movie has lived rent free in our heads. Was it the casting? The rain? Perhaps the unlikely physics of it all? Nonetheless, we’re not alone. That image of Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst has been preoccupying the painter Rachel Anna Simon, too. Her new solo show at Market Gallery, You & Me, features Spider-Man himself in a loop of sexually explicit vignettes, all born from a single intrusive thought Simon had during a lash appointment. “Maybe I just took that further in my mind,” she said on the phone last week. “Well, clearly I did.”

The artist and mother (who was once married to filmmaker Harmony Korine) insists that no fetish nor Marvel fixation can be found here, just the injection of humor fine art so sorely needs. In that regard, she has triumphed. The works are funny, memorable, and just the right amount of unhinged. After a raucous opening earlier this month (where one of the paintings was stolen and has yet to be recovered), I got on the phone with Simon to ask about flipping her vintage closet on Depop and, of course, whether the girls in the paintings are her. 

———

SANDSTROM: Thanks for making time. There’s so much I want to talk about. But the first thing I have to tell you is that I’m obsessed with your Depop. I think everyone is. 

SIMON: Thank you.

SANDSTROM: How come you’re selling all of this beautiful stuff? It’s so fun to flick through.

SIMON: Well, I’m 39, so I’ve spent 20 years collecting clothes. And in the past year I’ve started spending more time in New York, because I’m trying to start a career. Space is much more limited here, and it’s a big life change so I’m just trying to get rid of things that I don’t need anymore. But it’s all really cool stuff, so I don’t want to just give it away. It’s mostly fun to have friends come over and do closet sale type stuff and trade.

SANDSTROM: I’m sure it’s a fun project to chronicle your whole life through your outfits, too. 

SIMON: It is really fun. I love fashion. I just have so much. I had a bunch of storage units and I’m just now more focused on painting and creating. I’d rather have space for a studio than more closet space.

SANDSTROM: Yeah. Well, before we talk about the work, someone stole a painting from the opening right? Did they give it back?

SIMON: No, they did not give it back.

SANDSTROM: That’s really crazy.

SIMON: It’s really crazy. It’s one that had been sold. But I’m going to recreate it. It was untitled, so I’ll just title it “Number two,” and see if the buyer wants that. I don’t know, maybe the lore makes it even better. Someone said later that they saw someone holding it and they thought it was weird. But no leads. No one has come forth to return it.

SANDSTROM: I’m sorry. 

SIMON: It’s a bummer. But also, what can you do? It’s just a lesson learned… Security. 

SANDSTROM: I know. With an apartment gallery, it’s tough. It’s meant to feel like a family and friends thing where you’re like, “Obviously, I didn’t think anyone was going to steal from me.”

SIMON: Exactly. We weren’t really prepared for that, but I guess you always have to be prepared.

SANDSTROM: I guess you always do. I posted a picture of my Instagram story of one of the works. I think it was one of my most replied-to stories in a long time, more than a swimsuit picture or whatever.

SIMON: More than a thirst trap?

SANDSTROM: More than a thirst trap. People kept asking, “What is going on with these?” And I was like, “I don’t know, but I’m going to find out.” So now I can ask about the  origin of the Spider-Man story. 

SIMON: [Laughs] It’s really more simple than it seems, although I don’t really know about the psychology behind it. But as I said in the press release, I was just getting my lashes done, and this image of Spider-Man getting a blowjob popped into my head. I couldn’t stop thinking about it the whole time I was laying there. So when I finally opened my eyes, I got on Postmates and ordered colored pencils, because I didn’t even own art supplies. When they arrived, I just started drawing it over and over. At first I was really scared to share because I’ve never shared anything like that before–and I’ve never done anything like that before. But the response was immediately really positive and supportive, so I just took it from there.

SANDSTROM: I think people love the humor in it. It’s very narrative and very fun. Obviously we have to clear this up, are you the person in the picture?

SIMON: At first I was like, “It’s just a girl.” But I guess just by nature, I was drawing someone that resembled myself. Then I realized, “Oh yeah, that’s totally me.” So in all the drawings, I started to add something to show it was me, like the same color nails, or a bracelet or a bikini bottom. 

SANDSTROM: Cute. Well, I guess that begs the question, does that kind of imply that you’re horny for Spider-Man? 

SIMON: No. [Laughs]

SANDSTROM: Okay.

SIMON: I’m not. I don’t really know what it all means. It’s just something that I imagined and had to create. Then I just loved the way it looked, so I just kept going with it. Then some of the paintings have become more abstract and they’re more deconstructed. Lots of people keep suggesting, “Next you should do Superman,” or whatever. But it’s not a Marvel superhero obsession, it’s just that specific image. I have no idea why.

SANDSTROM: But Spider-Man and Marvel didn’t have a specific hold on you? This was just something that came into your head and you had to follow it through?

SIMON: No, my friend Sabrina, reminded me that over the winter we were watching Spider-Man. She thinks that that’s where it came from.

SANDSTROM: Well, I was thinking about how Kirsten Dunst and… I forgot his fucking name–

SIMON: Tobey Maguire. Yeah, the kiss. That came on and everyone was like, “This is the most romantic kiss in movie history.”

SANDSTROM: It kind of is.

SIMON: I think it really is. It’s iconic. So maybe I just took that further in my mind. Well, clearly I did. 

SANDSTROM: Does it feel like you are just opening a new chapter of your life and exploring yourself as an artist? You mentioned you want a studio space? 

SIMON: Yeah. I’m just really trying to honor myself and trust myself, and be true to what I want to do. And what I want to do is create art, be part of a community. 

SANDSTROM: How does that feel?

SIMON: It feels great. The opening was so nice. So many people came out and supported me, and they didn’t have to. It just really meant the world to me. It showed me that I have a path that I’m on, and I just want to enjoy it. I’m grateful and happy and excited.

SANDSTROM: That’s awesome. And what other kind of work are you making?

SIMON: I had a piece in a group show over the summer, and it was a painting of a horse. One of my good friends, Olivia, got thrown off a horse and she’s okay, but for some reason that inspired me to paint her being thrown from a horse over and over. 

SANDSTROM: Horses are powerful symbols.

SIMON: Yeah. And my uncle and my cousins, they’re all ropers. My uncle was a cowboy and I grew up going to rodeos and stuff like that. 

SANDSTROM: That’s so fun. With art in general, what kind of stuff do you like? What are you into?

SIMON: I’m kind of just getting re-inspired. I spent most of my life living in Nashville, Tennessee, and then the past 10 years in Miami. But now that I am spending more time up in New York to work, I get to go to openings and to the Met, and I get to see a lot of fantastic shows regularly. Being around people that share the interest, and support each other–that’s inspiring. Really, what I’ve been really into is staying home, cooking dinner and inviting friends over. Just playing music and drawing or painting together. It’s  community vibe. Inviting over artists or non-artists and just getting together and doing it. It’s really fun. And then ideas come up for different shows or things like that.

SANDSTROM: That’s awesome. I also wanted to ask, do you think you’ll ever act again?

SIMON: I would. It’s unclear whether I’m going to keep or sell my house in Miami, because life is kind of up in the air. But I kind of had this funny idea of doing a comedic estate sale thing. I would like to do comedy, but I also don’t feel an itch to act. 

SANDSTROM: It’s more like if someone approached you?

SIMON: Yeah. I never say never. Friends keep telling me they have things for me, and I’m always down to do a cool project with friends. 

SANDSTROM: Do you think your next series of artworks will have the same kind of humor, or do you think you’re down to move around?

SIMON: I’m definitely down to move around, but it probably will always have kind of a weird humor. That’s just who I am. I guess some people could look at something and be like, “That’s not funny at all. That’s terrible,” and some people find it hilarious.

SANDSTROM: Do you think you’ve always seen yourself as an artist, or do you think that’s a new thing for you? Is there a switch that’s been flipped?

SIMON: I didn’t know that I was an artist. I never knew. Now I realize that I am and I was all along, but I just didn’t see it. I didn’t believe in myself or have the confidence, or the encouragement. I thought of myself as more of a crafter. I remember saying to my friends, “Well, I’m not an artist.” And they’d tell me, “Yes, you are. What are you talking about?” But it’s kind of scary to just one day wake up and decide that you are. There’s so many artists, who am I to say that I am?

SANDSTROM: Right. 

SIMON: Then there was that kind of moment where I hesitated like, “I don’t get to just decide I’m an artist and be accepted. That has to be earned.” But I am grateful to every single person that replied to a story or texted me, because I had a lot of people encouraging me and telling me they loved what I was doing. That made all the difference for me, really. And it really, really pushed me to keep doing it. And then to finally believe in myself and realize, “No, it’s okay. You can call yourself an artist.”

SANDSTROM: So that was the galvanizing force, other people’s encouragement?

SIMON: For sure. There was definitely some people that were like, “What the fuck?” But if that would’ve been the overwhelming reaction, I probably would’ve just deleted it. I’m glad things worked out the way they did. 

SANDSTROM: Well, which superhero would you like to fuck most? What’s your ranking? Give me your top three maybe.

SIMON: [Laughs] I really don’t think I would. I’m not like that. I’m not boy-crazy. So I really don’t know what the hell happened. It’s funny, people keep saying, “Yeah, now you should do this…” And I’m just like, “Ew, no.”

SANDSTROM: [Laughs] 

SIMON: People keep saying, “Everyone has their fantasy.” And I’m like, “This isn’t my fantasy. It’s an idea.” But I guess anything can be dissected. 

SANDSTROM: I feel like that’s the whole thing about making art though. You immediately open yourself up to interpretation. Which is really cool, but also weird.

SIMON: I think that that’s fine and that’s what art should do. I think it’s cool if your art makes people have questions and confuses them. It wasn’t planned that way. I never ever would’ve imagined that any of this would be happening right now. I don’t know what’s coming next, but there’s definitely more to come. And there will be more work that you can hang in your home. It’s not all going to be blowjob images.

SANDSTROM: I think they’re great. I think people really miss humor in art, and narrative works like that specifically.

SIMON: For sure. I think people miss humor everywhere. I think if it comes from a pure place, people are open to it and it’s not taken offensively. Or even if some people are offended, what can you do?