Happy 95th Birthday to Marilyn Monroe!

To celebrate the global icon’s 95th birthday, The Estate of Marilyn Monroe is collaborating with today’s new and emerging digital artists from around the globe to present MARILYN MONROE™ METAMORPHOSIS. Inspired by Marilyn’s multi-dimensionality, complexity, and status in the world of pop culture, this next generation of artists envision the immortality of Marilyn in art was in a manner that propels Marilyn’s legacy forward while nodding at her storied history as a powerful woman who made her own way.

H+ Artists, Blake Kathryn, Jason Ebeyer, Vasya Kolotusha, Vincent Viriot, Blunt Action, Bloo Woods, Grace Casas and Aitana Basquiat all participated in the metamorphosis of bringing Miss Monroe back to digital life, here's what some of them had to say about the experience:

Blake Kathryn: "Everyone knows about the breathy, seductive rendition of Happy Birthday that Marilyn Monroe sang for President John F. Kennedy at his 45th birthday party in 1962. For this piece, I wanted to flip the narrative 200 years into the future and imagine a birthday party for Marilyn Monroe as President herself. Through the power, comfort, and ease in the way Marilyn breaks the fourth wall, I wanted to call attention to the times in Marilyn’s past where she took control and shattered boundaries throughout the Hollywood system. It is this blasé gaze that evokes Marilyn’s resolution. She risked everything and broke her contract with Fox Studios, demanded equal pay, commanded advance approval of her directors, wrote better scripts than the screenwriters, and became the second woman ever to start her own production company—Marilyn Monroe Productions."

Jason Ebeyer: "The metamorphosis from Norma Jeane to Marilyn has always fascinated me, much like the metamorphosis from coal to diamond. While diamonds are some of the rarest and most extraordinary gemstones, they come from humble origins. They are extraordinary because of their tetrahedral form and intrinsic rarity, yet they are also ordinary because of the fact that they are carbon-based and come from coal. The diamonds embody transformation, metamorphosis, and the journey towards light. Marilyn, too, embodies similar contradictions. She was very much of the 1950’s zeitgeist yet simultaneously years ahead of her time. She possessed a reassuring ultra-feminine, girl-next door sweetness that coexisted with an almost supernatural sexual magnetism."

Vasya Kolotusha: "Neon signs are a pervading tool used to drive American consumer engagement from bars to highway signs to cinemas and the like. I wanted to use this technology that was popular when Marilyn was alive to catapult her into the future within this blossoming digital space. Much like a neon sign, Marilyn was a light that grabs our attention with her dazzling stardom and glow."

For more information about the H+ Artists, visit their artist page!