New York-based artist Hope Gangloff — whose downtown-friendly, primarily pen-and-ink work you might recognize from the pages of the New York Times or My Open Bar’s newsletters — has a show opening tonight at Chelsea’s Susan Inglett Gallery. (Random interesting side note we learned thanks to The Rumpus: Hope’s father in law, Bruce Degen, is the original book illustrator for the Magic School Bus series.) We asked her to give us the back story on one of our favorite pieces, the portrait above. The dramatically different finished version, along with more featured works from the show, after the jump.

“Ha! That’s funny you’d ask about that one. Actually, the final painting looks nothing like that now. I changed it so much.

“The woman is my friend Lina Hellden. She’s a really good clothing designer. I had wanted to paint a small series of people having temper tantrums in beautiful surroundings while on their cell phones. Lina is a great model because she has the ability to look particularly concerned. (Neither here nor there, I could mention that she is Swedish.) Her eyes are intense and the color of aquamarine, and she has this mouth that looks like it was drawn on her with a ruler — triangle shapes on her top lip. Wild, dark hair falling to her waist.

“She might want to kill me for saying this, but she also loves her phone a little too much. While on vacation with her and some friends upstate over the summer, I had to physically steal her phone for a while, just to make a point. Phones drive me bananas. Having no reception on your phone is a blessing. In order to get reception upstate, you’d either have to A) row out into the middle of the lake or B) drive a mile up the road to the top of this mountain pass. I say it simply wasn’t meant to be. Chuck the phone in your dresser and listen to the trees. Row out into the middle of the lake, but make sure your only accessory is a bikini.

“My original plans for the painting were altogether different, so I might make a second version with two girls and a different background…”

And now, for the finished piece:

Hope Gangloff, “The Trouble with Paradise”, 2009. Acrylic/canvas, 64” by 81”. COURTESY: SUSAN INGLETT GALLERY, NYC.

Beautiful, isn’t it? More works below.

Hope Gangloff, “Blaze-N-Sauce”, 2009. Acrylic/canvas, 64” by 81”. Courtesy Susan Inglett Gallery, NYC.

Hope Gangloff, “Ashley Streeter Darrell (detail)”, 2009. Acrylic/canvas, 63” by 96”. Courtesy Susan Inglett Gallery, NYC.

Hope Gangloff, “Salome (detail)”, 2009. Acrylic/canvas, 90” by 48”. Courtesy Susan Inglett Gallery, NYC.

Hope Gangloff’s show at Susan Inglett runs through November 25th; a reception for the artist will be held tonight from 6 to 8 p.m.