Post two of the Art Pairings Series.
This is a fun blog series where I pair my different art series with books, music, and activities. These curated lists will be a combination of my direct, and indirect, inspirations as well as other things that I felt would complement a specific series of work.
Artist Statement:
This series of work explores the intersections of sensuality, feminism, and the body. How can I make figurative works without the restrictions of the male gaze? In these drawings, I want freedom from the constraints of patriarchy and religious indoctrination. My interest in the feminine archetype informs this work. Women in art are depicted as the exploitable maiden, the sexy Venus who exists to be looked upon, the compliant mother who gives up her own identity to raise another, or the monster who defies convention and is feared for it (often a "crone.") Figurative work often defaults to the maiden/Venus archetype. It is consumable and for male sexual gratification. But often, depictions of women owning their sexual power, their bodies, and their experience, those images are censored and devalued. I am much more interested in depicting women as they are: complex, fleshed out, whole. These are the beginning steps of knitting together the female nude in a web of milk, moonblood, and yoni nectar, finding the magic in shedding what doesn't work and uncovering what feels authentic. I hope these inspire you to find comfort in your devouring, orgasmic, animalistic, monster of a body.
Playlist:
Eat:
-Organic green grapes and figs and goat cheese on the fanciest crackers at the grocery store.
-Dark chocolate
-Chocolate gelato
-Nectarines in the sunshine by yourself
Read:
Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power by Audre Lorde
Girlhood by Melissa Febos
Wake Siren: Ovid Resung by Nina MacLaughlin
Anaïs Nin
The Complete Poems of Sappho
Watch:
Thelma and Louise
Marie Antoinette
Portrait of A Lady on Fire
Do:
Have sex. Have better sex. Masturbate. Learn your landscape, deeply. Orgasm. Be wild. Do something that makes you feel free. Get naked. Go for a swim, naked. Orgasm. Look at yourself in the mirror until you question everything. Get high. Get wet. Orgasm. Touch your menstrual blood. Grow out your body hair. Let your hips sway. Dance. Adorn yourself in talismans and silk. Stop caring what they think. Orgasm.
