What She Wants You to See
New art!
I’ve discovered I can get out of creative dry spells if I can come up with multiple reasons to do a particular project. I generally only seem to be able to rationalize away one at a time….
The reasons for doing this one were several. First off, I was getting frustrated with the social justice theme – it was starting to feel propaganda-ish to me, which was a sign I’d gotten too deep and needed to back off until I could see the glowing heart of it again. So I wanted to do something that was just plain pretty.
But that felt frivolous (I know, I know… issues…. I’m working on them.) – I still wanted a reason, something in particular I was trying to accomplish. So I decided to do a portrait of a woman of color, in continuation of my efforts detailed here and here. Finally, I decided to also use it as an opportunity to experiment with some new techniques.
She doesn’t really have a title. The file name is “Shadowed”, but that’s more of a descriptor than an attribution of deeper meaning. If I had to ascribe meaning to her, it’s a reflection of the uproar over women in hijab, and an effort to show a strong, happy, confident woman who’s wearing a head covering because she wants to. (In other words, shame on you, France.) But I haven’t gotten all that to distill into a nice little title, yet. Thanks to reader Kate, her title is now What She Wants You to See.
The new techniques in question are dry-brushing on the fabric and some new pens – nothing all that drastic, but I like the effects.
Date: September 2, 2010
