These are my favourite drawings from a recent life drawing session. They aren’t particularly accurate, i’ve elongated parts of the body and missed out a lot of features, such as the feet and facial features. Does this distortion make her less susceptible to being subjected to the Male Gaze? (Featured in Laura Mulvey’s Narrative Cinema and Visual Pleasures)
Are these drawings nice to look at, or is the viewer left feeling uncomfortable because the images aren’t proportionally accurate or perfect?
Another idea to explore. These drawings could be taken further by embroidering them on top of a painting or onto a wall hanging.
I’ve been working on this portrait of Emma Watson for a little while, but I don’t seem to be getting very far with it. I started off painting with brushes, and I just wasn’t enjoying it. So I found some leftover gloves from an old hair dye packet and decided to start painting using only my hands/fingers. It gave me a lot more confidence with the boldness of the strokes/textures, and the colours I chose to use were brighter, leaving me feeling happier with the overall outcome. It’s still an unfinished painting, but I would like to continue using my hands to paint with.
I’ve always been very keen on the idea of creating textures within a painting, and for this project i’d like to explore new ways of doing this. I think by combining different fabrics with embroidery string, and then painting over the top, I could create a really interesting texture.
My project for this year is revolving around the issues surrounding gender equality, focusing on Emma Watson’s UN speech on the subject. By issues, I mean the fact that women and men are expected to have completely different personas because society says so. Women get ridiculed if they become muscular or strong. Men get ridiculed if they show emotion or their sensitivity.
I’ve been busy in the print room, printing a couple of quotes from Watson’s speech onto fabric, which is something I have not tried before. I printed these two quotes;
“Gender is a spectrum, not opposing ideals.”
“Both men and women should feel free to be sensitive and strong.”
I printed these onto plain and floral fabrics – the floral pattern being a main component in a lot of feminist, textile based, artwork. But why? Why is the floral pattern so stereotypically feminine? Has embroidery and sewing always been a ‘woman’s job’?
These are a couple of questions that I wish to explore throughout this project.
I’m hoping to join these prints to some other components (which are still yet to be made) to create a wall hanging, not too dissimilar to those by Tracey Emin.
Tracey Emin uses different patterned and textured fabric ; floral cotton, bold coloured felt. I love the combination of so many different elements. I’m hoping to achieve a similar effect by adding paint, fabric and embroidery string together.
Additionally, here is a link to Emma Watson’s UN Speech on Gender Equality ; http://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2014/9/emma-watson-gender-equality-is-your-issue-too
