Her Notebook

A tribute to the Russian Revolution, the overthrow of a monarchy and the former USSR. This piece represents the struggle of a revolution, the lives lost within the fight, the commercial art used to promote war and one of the first Communist states to emerge.

This piece consists of mixed media, string, acrylic paint, gesso, gel medium and photo transfers. It has soviet commercial designs integrated into the USSR flag with The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx, hidden beneath the images.

So we were assigned a Metamorphosis project for my Colour Exploration class and I tackled a bit more of an abstract idea of change over time. I wanted to focus on something I can’t seem to grasp fully–the idea of what makes a woman beautiful within the mainstream media. I really can’t relate to everything I see thrown infront of me on a daily basis, but I think it is interesting to question how intense the idea of “the beauty myth” has changed over time and how popular belief to the question of, “what makes a woman beautiful?” has taken a drastic turn.

From thick to thin, light skin to dark, this is a representation of woman, as a whole with her sisters of all shapes and colours beside her, floating in unity to make up a whole. I believe that diversity makes a woman beautiful. I think that her strength, independence and body makes her sexy, no matter what her size. I used bold colours and sharpie ink to outline my canvas images. This acrylic painting is 36 x 48 inches. It took over 50+ hours to complete.

A few shots of Sebastien taken downtown with his mom, Rosanna. This kid is eager to move and loves the camera! Besides pooing on my shirt, he was a great subject to photograph!

 The middle of the semester is quickly approaching and the amount of work is hitting me really hard. I can barely keep my eyes open as I write all of this down–to be honest, I have a lot more to do as I type. This is me procrastinating, so I may as well explain a bit about what I’m posting so you know where I’m coming from. I’ve been doing quite a bit of experimenting with transfer techniques onto wood and fabric. I am working alongside teachers such as Shirley Yanover and Lyn Carter at OCAD, who are influencing much of my new work. I have been sculpting out of wax in Lyn’s class, combining 2 or more objects together to create one solid piece. The cold, empty-eyed, empty bodied sculpture of a silenced woman is what came out of it. I’m loving working with wax. I’ve carved out so much of it with my tips of my fingers that I’m starting to feel as if I don’t have fingerprints anymore. I love producing work, but I’m creatively burned out. The other pieces are done with paint and charcoal. The piece with the guitars hidden away into the city was my take on a space I find myself in lately. The city carries it’s own melody and I rock out to it daily. The Mandala was an experiment with geometric shapes, which I hated and the blue, value piece of Susanna Kasen in Girl Interrupted wrapped up my “Textbook” assignment for colour theory. Alright-reading week, here I come (…and that means, sleep). I’ll be posting up some new pieces in the next week or so on Soviet Commercial Design and my take on “The Beauty Myth”.
Stay warm, Toronto.