BIOGRAPHY
My current work explores themes of the male gaze, storytelling, and using art history in a contemporary context. I use traditional media, charcoal, chalk, and recently etching and painting to create work through a woman’s view, the theme of life, and abstractions of the human body.
After the Gaze I and After the Gaze II, is my primary thesis work for my BFA. This diptych of two women in exposing poses, covered in drapery with missing physical body parts, represents the women of the historical male gaze. They have been put into positions that make us as viewers question if they are voluntarily there and if they are truly comfortable. The drapery is a distraction—encouraging the audience to navigate the works by following the folds of the fabric rather than judging the women. The work is a way of questioning the relationship of historical portrayals of women and current treatment of women.
I have always found hands to be among the most difficult things to draw but one of the most fascinating. So I made it a goal to study hands and how to draw them in high school. By the time I got to the university level, I had a decent foundation and could focus on why I think this is an interesting area of study. In my research I have come across studies that suggest that hands are the first things we look at when having a face to face interaction with another person. They are one of the primary ways of expressing body language. I think of my drawings of hands as portraits. We can tell how old someone is, what kind of occupation they may have, and what emotions they may be feeling, all just by paying attention to our hands. We wear wedding and engagement rings to signal our marital status; people paint their nails as a form of expression; and simple body language, like an open or closed hand, tells us whether we are comfortable or anxious. My hand portraits Curiosity, Strength and Wisdom tell the story of one’s life.
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As I explore ideas of realism in drawing hands and figures, I’ve become more interested in abstracting the body. I have done work that mirrors and overlaps male bodies, turning them into new creatures or new anatomy. My first figure abstraction, Male Form Female Space, has two male figures creating female genitalia right in the center. A representation that we all come from women and start as women in our fetal development. Another, Minotaur, created an almost animal-like creature similar to a minotaur. The actions of men in recent events are more like those of creatures than those of empathetic humans.
My work places the representation and narratives of women throughout history and currently at the forefront. I have a love for studying the human body and life itself. I hope to tell a story in each piece from women’s mistreatment to stories of lived experience.