Shag

Few artists are as closely associated with Palm Springs as SHAG. His colorful, stylized scenes have helped define the city’s modern mythology, a world of architecture, cocktails, pools and desert glamour where reality is often just the starting point.
Synchronized swimmers seem perfectly at home in a SHAG painting. Why are they capturing your imagination now?
I’m currently obsessed with synchronized swim troupes and their choreographed routines. Occasionally, I go to parties in Palm Springs where a troupe will put on a water show in the backyard swimming pool. I’m working on a series of paintings where that is part of the narrative.
How does the contrast between the raw desert and Palm Springs’ cultivated oasis shape your work?
The contrast between the harsh desert landscape and the man-made environment of Palm Springs is a recurring theme in my art. A typical scene might be the hot, dry desert viewed from a modern interior through large walls of glass.
Your work has helped create the mythology of Palm Springs. How much of the city you paint is real and how much is your own version of paradise?
I’m a big supporter of the myth of Palm Springs, that thing that makes people from around the world want to visit or live here. I tend to romanticize the city and replace the parts that may be ugly or dirty with an idealized future version of Palm Springs.