thisislondon.com
The art of drug rehab
By Tom Teodorczuk, Evening Standard
23 November 2005
Controversial artist Stella Vine has unveiled her latest painting of Kate Moss - inspired by the supermodel's fight against drugs.
Kate Unfinished is part of an exhibition entitled The Beautiful And The Damned, the title of F Scott Fitzgerald's novel of decadence and wasted lives which was the theme of Moss's 30th birthday party in January last year. It is a tribute to the model's reaction to a newspaper publishing photographs of her snorting cocaine.
"I wanted to show the enormous strength in Kate's eyes," said Vine, 36. "She has this great enigmatic quality, she's so amazingly strong.
"I'm an old-fashioned spirit, just like Kate, except she lives this glamorous, decadent life - I just think of it."
Vine, who said she recently beat her own £600-a-week cocaine habit, portrays Moss in another picture in the grounds of The Priory, where she spent six weeks in 1998 with drink and drug problems.
The model is shown waving her arms while her boyfriend, Babyshambles singer Pete Doherty, reaches to her with an outstretched hand.
Jude Law and Sienna Miller, Law's ex-wife Sadie Frost, Moss's ex-boyfriend Johnny Depp and his partner Vanessa Paradis are also featured.
"I hope I don't go to The Priory - I'd like to think I'd go somewhere more quiet," said Vine, who has painted Moss before but never met her.
She once depicted the model smiling next to text saying: "I only make love to Jesus." That work was bought by a friend of Moss's, fashion designer Alexander McQueen.
The former pole dancer's other subjects in the exhibition include the Rolling Stones.

