beg. painting final

Final for Beginning painting, taught by Lauren Howard




We also had to turn in a statement:
This painting is the result of a genuine interest in the politics behind nude depiction as it relates to gender and interpersonal relationships. Working from a personally relevant source image (and images found on the web), the painting may inquire what it means to be an exhibitionist (or a voyeur) and how that relates/influences artistic practice. Usurping a secondary (internet) source to change the identity of the figure, a nod is made to the tenuous student/teacher relationship between the subject of the painting and the author of the work may also point to the power structure of art instruction and how it relates to the shaping of student work in the shadow of an academic practice. It is not, however, a personal affront on the character of any one person, but rather, an indictment of what inevitably occurs during the course of artistic direction in academic education. The painting was made in the hopes that an earnest discussion may be sparked as a result of a tension created between the presences of the painting's subject and her pupils in regards to gender, the (oft unnecessary) rules of depiction (in regard to the author's gender) and how they are limiting in the way we express ourselves artistically in a "post male-gaze" society.