Throughout my body of work, I present a female character attempting to break through the social constraints imposed upon women, exploring what it means to live in a female body. I am interested in exposing the hyper-visibility of the young female body and the invisibility of the aging female body throughout art history and in contemporary society.
My portrayal of the naked female body conflates and complicates both anti-feminist and feminist readings. The images can be read as anti-feminist because the bodies appear to be vulnerable and submissive. At the same time, the paintings can be read as feminist as the female body is large, masculine, and intrusive on the viewer’s space exposing her sexuality on her own time in her own terms. In my paintings, the woman is doing the “looking”; she is a desiring sexual subject making decisions about her sexual “object” status.
My portrayal of the naked female body conflates and complicates both anti-feminist and feminist readings. The images can be read as anti-feminist because the bodies appear to be vulnerable and submissive. At the same time, the paintings can be read as feminist as the female body is large, masculine, and intrusive on the viewer’s space exposing her sexuality on her own time in her own terms. In my paintings, the woman is doing the “looking”; she is a desiring sexual subject making decisions about her sexual “object” status.
