LIFE UPDATE, SUBVERSIVE SNEAK PEEK
Originally published as an email
Hello!
How are you? I have some thoughts - but first-
Today is the last day to order the re-release of the painting, Rescue, 2011. It is offered in 2 sized, and as a fine art print on archival mat paper print you can frame yourself (would look gorgeous in a thrift antique frame), or framed by the printer in a black or white wood frame. Find it HERE
LIFE UPDATE
These last two weeks have been the first two weeks of life with a bionic hip… Unsurprisingly I’ve found a way to keep making art... from my couch. I call it Frida Kahlo-ing although recovering from a hip replacement has its limitations, I cannot imagine the pain mental and physical of suffering from a life altering injury with the lasting chronic limitations which she had. Frida Kahlo was a Mexican artist working during the 1930-50s. She suffered a train accident where she broke many bones, but despite this became a painter, often from her bed, hence my reference. She may still be the most recognized Mexican artist today, at least in the US.
Fun fact- in college I recreated myself in this painting below by Frida, with my two cats.
In any case- I am doing alright. I can’t do all that much with clay, but I have been painting in guoache, mostly narrative pieces about my life right now. I’m calling the series Bad Art, because then I don’t particularly worry about the outcome. In fact these paintings I am making I have been intentionally avoided photo references, something which was a major part of my paintings before. I like the dreamier quality that is emerging… it is more spontaneous, and looser. An irony which has not escaped me, as I painted my whole life leading up to my late 20’s is that at pottery shows, I often tell folks that I became a potter because as a painter, I mostly painted moody self portraits that had no market value. And here I am 13 years later painting… moody self portraits again. I think I will maybe find a way to show them as a grouping when this little ordeal is over for me. Here yesterdays Bad Art
Anyways. While I am laid up here, I would like to try something new- I am going to offer a new print from my current work or from my archives every week (we shall see how many weeks I can keep this up!). Pricing will depend on the intensity of the painting, and this weeks is called, ‘Body Hair, Beautiful’. It’s a quick painting in blue, with a woman posed with her arm raised showing the arm pit of a matured woman. We (I) as women are so conditioned to even feel revulsion at the thought of ourselves in public like this. It’s a testament to the power of the razor industry’s marketing and literally changing the landscape of women’s bodies in public. It’s not the … hairlessness only that bothers me and I’m not saying people didn’t remove hair before. But it is the onus, the totality of accepted beauty in regards to shaving. That’s the part that irritates me. Like, are we all really shaving our pits to make the parent company of Venus or whatever loads and loads of money? It’s mind boggling. In the process we are idealizing a pre-mature woman… and I know the simple act of shaving is … simple. But with the magnitude of the Epstein tragedy, the new law in Ohio criminalizing perceived and real ‘transgressions’ from sex v gender and discrimination that ordinary women face every day… it makes one start to wonder. And I’ll admit something to you- I did shave before my surgery, for my surgical team. Why? Conformity. Why? Because in the back of my head there was a little bug telling me that people who are perceived as more beautiful (ie conforming to societies extremely fucked up standards of beauty) are treated better. It’s called pretty privilege. So anyways. I did that.
One last thing; with the revulsion issue. I do think that most of us can look at photos of women without being grossed out, but it’s harder to turn the lens on ourself.- SO that’s why I made this painting, just a little reminder. It will be available next week as a print- here is a little sneak peek.
I hope you are well. Thank you for following my meandering art journey. I am getting accepted to some shows for this year, so I will be back in the clay soon, I hope, preparing for all of that.
My love to you,
Emilie