peyton's place; Painting rock stars and other idols with an obsessive admiration, Elizabeth Peyton has made a hopelessly out-of-date style of art cutting-edge.(Interview)

Byline: Dodie Kazanjian

Elizabeth Peyton paints in the basement. It's a very ordinary basement, in an ordinary house in a small town on the North Fork of Long Island. A narrow window near the ceiling lets in a dim, watery light. "I like working down here," she tells me in her soft but oddly confident little-girl's voice. "In the studio I had in New York, I could never work until the late afternoon, when the sun had gone down. Here, I'm not bothered by how beautiful it is outside. I like to disappear a bit."

Pinned or taped or tacked to every available inch of wall surface are images she has painted or may want to paint someday: Napoleon, King Ludwig II, ...