Sunday, October 15, 2017

Project #2

I wasn’t sure exactly where I wanted to go with this project at first. I did however know that I wanted to base it around women’s rights because it was and still is so prevalent in society. I’ve always found that my work is a lot better when I’m passionate about it, (and it makes the process more fun too) so I wanted to pick a specific subcategory of women’s rights to base my piece around. With the Trump presidency came a lot of policy changes as the government shifted from a democratic president to a republican president. One thing that he was so passionate about was wanting to ban abortion, repeal the Affordable Care Act, and cut off funding for Planned Parenthood. That to me was a slap in the face to all women. It felt as if he just disregarded women as human beings. Although I don’t personally use birth control, it felt like a stab in the heart to see our own president be so malicious to our own rights. Why does he get to decide what we can and can’t do with our bodies? Why does he even get a say? Are men superior to women?
All these questions started to run through my head and that's how I knew to start my project. I first began with researching womens marches past to present to get a better understanding of other people's perspective and not just mine. One thing that really hurt my heart was when I saw this picture of an old lady from a women's march when Trump was elected president with a sign that said “I can't believe I still have to protest this shit”. Its 2017 and apparently women still have to fight for basic human rights.
That lead me to looking up and discovering artists that produce work solely around women's rights. My first influence came from an artist named Michele Pred. Her art is eye catching and bold. She states that she wants to “spread the message [women's reproductive rights] and provoke conversation” which I thought was a very powerful statement. We do need to provoke this conversation or else nothing will be done to fix the issue. By being silent, you are part of the problem (and I think that goes for a variety of issues not just this one). What I liked the most about her work is that she uses purses, pins and t-shirts as ‘small-scale political billboards’. It's very different from the basic white canvas and makes it stand out that much more. Regarding one of her more famous pieces of the purse, she states that the 'vintage purses reflect the fact that we are stuck in a past era that we need to escape’. After researching her work more I learned that she donates five percent of the proceeds to NARAL Pro-Choice New York. She’s not only showing everyone the issue at hand, but she’s working to fix it by donating.
Another influence was Indira Cesarine. Owner of The Untitled Magazine, The Untitled Space, Untitled Productions and The Untitled Boutique, Cesarine is a women's right activist, feminist, and incredible artist. Her artwork is beautiful yet empowering. When I first saw her 'Protest’ piece, I immediately was drawn into her work. I love how her work varies from black and white to neon signs and colors that draws your eyes. She isn't tied to one medium; she has sculptures, and paintings, and photography, and mixed media that inspired me to use paint and charcoal together.
From there, I had this idea in my head that I wasn't exactly sure how to execute right away. I wanted to draw a girl in a vulnerable state and then somehow depict how everyone else but her gets a say in what she does to her body. At first I was going to draw an up close study on a woman's torso and crop out her head to almost “dehumanize” her to show that's how the government views women. It sees women as just bodies not people. I then realized that when I’m most vulnerable, I curl up in a ball or the fetal position which I liked so I asked my roommate to crouch down in that position as I took a photo of her and used it as a drawing reference. In order to make my work more literal I drew a hand coming out of nowhere holding the girl to represent Trump/the government/anyone else besides the girl. I drew the hand really big to touch on this idea that Trump/the government has a bigger say and has the power to override women's rights and take away Planned Parenthood. I originally was going to paint the hand and leave everything else black and white, but there was something so interesting about the sketched hand and how it looks almost like a mechanical hand. I didn't draw her feet as she touched the hand to say how these people have taken a piece of her and they don't care. I really liked how the line contorted hand contrasted with the fully rendered girl so I kept it that way. I painted the background blue to represent how this world is male dominated and how males have a say in a female's decision. I used the words “If men could get pregnant, birth control would be from gumball machines and bacon flavored” from a protest sign I read in my research.




Influence 2: http://indiracesarine.com/artwork/

https://www.womensmarch.com/global/

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/01/21/womens-march-aims-start-movement-trump-inauguration/96864158/

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/09/05/trump-obamacare-repeal-senate-242346

https://www.prochoiceamerica.org/laws-policy/federal-government/donald-trump-abortion/

https://statusofwomendata.org/explore-the-data/reproductive-rights/#chapter





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