MASKS
MAKE-UP
CLOTHING
ARMOUR
ARMOUR
MASK AND PEARLS 2014 Oil paint on treated paper 20" x 23" plus details
These started with a self-portrait in pencil and collage.
I was exploring ways to suggest shape and mass by curving abstract designs over the planes of the body.
Cropped, and taken to the computer, the images evolved, including the allusion to cubism.
I think that women often use clothing and make-up as attempts to conceal vulnerability.
What about those nails... are they defensive weapons?
3 VERSIONS
Details from the original
THE ASCENSION OF THE BRIDE 2014
Pencil on drawing paper (18"x24")
This was planned as an image of a much younger woman. Without a live model,
I settled for a Muybridge photo as reference, but was never really satisfied with the result.
The connection here is with clothing.
I often thought that weddings might loose appeal for young women if the opportunity to wear that beautiful dress was not so seductive.
On "her day" the bride enters a contract that binds her in ways she may not have considered.
A celebration takes place of
the fecundity of her body and, at least historically, her elevation in status as a legally married woman. From that day she is elevated in status by union with a man and sanctified by the sacrificial "loss" of her virginity.
Details from a drawing... post-pubescent fantasy