Personal project- My project focuses on series of illustrations/portraits in which I can express true femininity and the reality of imperfection.
It comes from an idea that the passive totem of sexualized womanhood is still visible in pornography, (social) media and advertising. Troughout my work I am exploring eroticism, and how owning it can subvert people's understanding of it.
This has prompted an ongoing interest for me to engage with the nude and to challenge ingrained conventions. To visualise this, I locate a tension between the subjects classical poses and the awkwardness many of them portray in their facial expressions.
In my illustrations, the body is displayed as if the viewer is invited to witness an intimate moment. Sometimes these sexual drawings present a study of the body as an instrument for experiencing and expressing pleasure, pain and desire. I am drawn to images which show contradictory positions of vulnerability, empowerment, sadness and pride.
As part of my exploration, I am interested in incorporating fashion illustration I believe that clothing can add emotional content. I feel that a dichotomy can be created between clothing and figure: while the figures hold still and static postures, the clothing itself articulates emotion through a controlled structural reaction expressed in the form of intense paint and pattern or bursts of colour.
In classic psychology, the items we wear represent the exterior being a mask we show to the world. In my illustrations the clothing is used to express the emotions and inner life on the individual. Instead of helping to fit in the society by hiding less accepted emotions like sadness, fear, sexual arousal and the likes, these garments reveal the truth, the real emotions, feelings and mental state.