Because the feminine does carry substance.

This blog post was a long time coming because I wanted it to be truthful, which as discussed in previous posts, can be hard when discussing something as intuitive as one’s art. It bred a rejected draft and the post doubting whether there is even a point talking about art.


All sparked by a conversation I had with a fellow artist Sophie Sturdevant, who is also fascinated by the female form. 

It was much later that I realised what I was trying to achieve with these images based on women in advertising. 


Advertising, fashion, often mistakenly deemed as shallow and trivial, rejected as vulgar and narcissistic by the ideals of the USSR. The feminine criticised as dumb and vain by misogynists never truly captured by feminist movements focused on simply allowing women to survive. 

But there is undoubtedly substance in beauty, in the unconditional love and care, in the deep emotional intelligence and range, in the sensitivity that only the woman can give, that she was made for by biology, by nature, god or gods in equipping her for her many roles, among them the forever rejected by modern society role of motherhood. 

Women celebrating the true nature of womanhood in its full unapologetic unconditional delicacy in their art or music are often criticised as not true feminists (Lana Del Rey) or dismissed as lacking depth (Taylor Swift). Women who look at the traumas the woman faces in the modern world in their art are criticised as lacking class (Tracey Emin).

And it goes beyond that. Men capable of understanding, living and feeling the feminine suffer either active persecution or are faced with the same tiresome stereotypes women are whether heterosexual, trans or gay.


It seems the hatred goes deep into the imbalance in our society between the feminine and masculine. 


I think for me though it was always a personal journey - growing up in environments where I saw mainly toxic versions of feminity, I rekindled it later in life and developed a fascination with what it means to be a woman.