Exam

To further my understanding of feminism in art I looked into more examples of art history. Although I think this is a powerful image, I, personally, felt the design was too simple.

Exam

To increase the fluency of my art work I decided to incorporate some of the skills I had learnt from previous projects into some of my prep. Here I use oil paints to do a direct copy of 'Puberty' by Edvard Munch. My exploration of him in my personal study prompted me to use him as he did very emotional nude paintings/drawings. This particular image is one I am very interested in, not only because it is such a powerful image but because there is strong debate on what the shadow represents. One argument is that is represents 'looming male genitalia'  and  the thought of male genitalia to a young woman during this time of her own rapidly changing body creates a stench of tension within the piece. Although I thought this was a very interesting outlook I decided to modernise my approach. For example I looked into the influence of today's media on young women in particular, the Sun. The shadow cast is a collage of the Sun's Page 3 as I feel the constant imagery of the 'perfect woman' in today's media is repressive and can lead to many insecurities. 

However I also included the Gorilla head as it shows how my challenge to these images and my attitude towards feminism protects me from the shallowness of today's media.

Exam

These pieces were to further my exploration of the 'Guerrilla Girls' and the importance of their movement. I picked recognised paintings by famous male artists and modified them to include the head of a Gorilla. I did this by, first drawing the Gorilla and then photocopying it onto the image. 

Theses was my own versions of the 'Guerrilla Girls' campaign - 'Do Women STILL Have to be Naked to Get Into the Met. Museum?' where they placed gorilla masks on top of famous nude paintings. 

However I didn't just decide to pick pictures of nude women, I also looked into one version of Andy Warhol's piece 'Marilyn Diptych'. Warhol repeatedly commented on society's infatuation with fame and celebrities in his works. This analysis of the media and the impact it had on women was something I felt was important to display. 

I added gold frames to both these pieces as gold has connotations of prestige and excellence; something I believe the Guerrilla Girls have achieved and I personally wanted to celebrate that. However the frame was also added to indicate the urgency of increasing women's representation in galleries and the art world. Each gender deserves equal representation however in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, as shown by the Guerrilla Girls 2012 poster, less than 5% of the artists in the Modern Art Section are women but 85% of the nudes are female.

Exam

These are some of my explorations into the representation of men and women in today's media. Whereas men are plastered on page after page of the sports sections, women get recognition for photo-shoots in bikinis. Although I fully respect models, I don't believe that this counts as news. 

In both these instances I used brusho to create a second layer to the picture to question this portrayal.

Exam - Inspiration

Throughout my A-Level course, it had always been important that my pieces portrayed some sort of message therefore for my exam I wanted to keep that apparent. Furthermore I wanted to use personal experiences to shape my art and thus picked a topic close to my heart - feminism. Although I'm only a teenager I feel I have been subjected to many misogynistic and sexist situations and at the time felt I couldn't voice my protest. Looking into artists such as Barbara Kruger and movements like the 'Guerrilla Girls' only fueled my desire and so, my exam project was decided.

A further inspiration was my trip to Liverpool and a visit to the Tate Modern. Sylvia Sleigh was being exhibited and was famous for her nude paintings of males. Known to be a feminist herself, her work inspired me as it was so strongly connected to the Guerrilla Girls and their beliefs. For example, the Guerrilla Girls campaign for recognition of women in art and use the comparison of nude paintings of women vs. paintings by women in galleries as an argument. Similarly Sylvia Sleigh painted men nude as it went against the stereotype of that time. This area of inspiration led me onto to look at the use of nudity into today's art and also, today's media.  

Further exploration into landscapes...

These two pieces were done in between projects and were predominantly due to my personal study and my love of Van Gogh's work. The one on the top left is just a direct copy of 'Wheatfield with crows' using oil paints. Although I like this piece if I were to do it again I was use a higher variety of tones within the wheat field and also make a more atmospheric sky as this is a key element to Van Gogh's work.                                

 The one on the bottom right though was done by using a technique I learnt on a course called 'felt-making'. Although the overall process was fun, I felt the vividness of the colours used by Van Gogh was lost. I preferred the piece before it was flattened down and soaked to create felt (shown in the top right corner) as it still retained the vivid use of colour and also created the atmospheric sky that the oil painting lacked. However the variation of tones within the wheat field lacked again.

Identity Project (+ explorations into landscapes)

 On the left was my next attempt at oil painting. As I still wanted to base my project on Identity, I decided to do a more in-depth study into the personality of my model. She loved geography and was keen on preservation therefore I thought a study of landscapes would help create the perfect palette for my piece. On the right are some examples of my development. Throughout this stage I was keen to experiment with a range of mediums, such as palette knifing, brusho and collage, as my personal study prompted me to increase my skill base. These pieces all helped me decide that I should predominantly use greens, yellows and browns as my main colours however the top painting of cherry blossom made me also use pink as I believe cherry blossom capture a certain beauty, a similar emotion my friend has to the entirety of nature. This emotion was one I wanted to preserve, just as my friend wants to preserve the beauty of the environment. Overall I was happy with my final piece however I think an increase in different tones would have produced a better outcome as definition on the face would have been clearer.

After I wrote this post, I decided to add trees into the background as I felt it gave a stronger connection to the identity of the model.