"I'M GLAD WE AGREE WITH ME" BY NIAGARA

The original "I'm Glad We Agree With Me" painting is part of a private collection.

Detroit music royalty, Niagara is the cult worshipped front woman for proto-punk art bands Destroy All Monsters, Dark Carnival and The Hitmen. Her stage theatrics - once described as "a cocktail of Valium, Tuinal and Nervine" - and ragged sex appeal inspired the Riot grrrl ethos on a whole as well as the individual stylings of budding female artists like Madonna. In addition she is a fine artist and painter who focuses on fluid lines and making men cry.

"The first art style that I identified with was Art Nouveau. Then I discovered Decadent Art (1850's-era England), the Pre-Raphaelite movement: haunted, pale, druggy women. I read constantly. I was deep into Dostoyevsky and Dickens. Colette. The best are the writers that can turn a phrase devastatingly funny. The witticisms and bon mots of Oscar Wilde, Mark Twain, Truman Capote, Tennessee Williams, Dorothy Parker. Andy Warhol was a riot. I want the women in my paintings to speak."

"The Niagara Girl" -- in many guises -- represents feminist swagger with drop-dead-gorgeous looks and a dangerous demeanor. Niagara offers hard-boiled, tough talking women who would rather dispatch a man than put up with rude antics. Her bold, colorful, comic-strip-styled dames in various scenes of malfeasance parallel the modern tone of Callie Khoury's Thelma and Louise. Common ancestors include pin-up girls like Bettie Page and the dark side of 40's and 50's film icons such as Bette Davis, Lauren Bacall and Jane Greer.