I’m experimenting with more abstract shapes and paintings after looking into Dorothy Iannone, as she uses a childlike style and concentrates more on what the piece is saying, rather than it’s beauty or skill. I decided on playing with colour and using layers and layers of shapes, after looking through my sketchbook for inspiration from past doodles. I corresponded Frida Kahlo and Dorothy Iannone in these pieces, form Kahlo’s use of nature to Iannone’s use of abstract women and their purpose in the piece.
This piece has turned out larger and busier than any other shaped painting that I’ve done, even though I haven’t taken as much time on the finer details, rather spending that time on the different shapes and colours. I used parts of the body that are deemed too ‘sexy’ for places such as schools (shoulders, legs) as well as breasts that are sexualised when they exist to feed babies. I combined them with nature, once again, to take the girl/woman’s body back from this, especially by the use of roses, as they are often used in poetry and films (American Beauty being one, where a sexually frustrated father has a mid-life crisis after becoming infatuated with his daughter’s best friend), thus was used almost ironically. I feel that the use of nature in my pieces work really well, as they are often dramatic and, at first, look like something from a William Blake poem. However, the aim is that they show how femininity and women’s bodies are natural and far from having to be hidden, unless chosen to be.
saratrouble 