Artwork: Illustration
That's Show Biz, Baby!
Gouache Illustration December 2019 Exhibition Text An exploration of sex work, showing two porn actresses in different life scenarios. It shows the parts of their lives that are seen and unseen by a public audience. |
Inspiration
I had two specific pieces of inspiration that I pulled the poses from. These pieces are Le Sommeil (left) by Gustave Courbet, and The Card Players (right) by Paul Cézanne. I used Le Sommeil because it depicts two women in an erotic pose, something that I needed to convey the message behind this piece. I chose to use The Card Players for the other part of this piece because it depicts two men doing something completely normal - they're sitting together, playing cards. I used the differences between these two pieces for the project because it helped to convey a contrast. I also took some inspiration from the surrealist movement, specifically Son of Man by Salvador Dali and The False Mirror by Rene Magritte. I did this to obscure the figures in the piece, in order to make it evident that the public does not really know who they are. The eyes, with inspiration taken from Magritte, represent the audience. They see these two people engaging in sexual activity, and no other parts of their lives.
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Another large part of my inspiration for this piece was sex work, including porn, prostitution, and other similar things. This is a very controversial topic, however, industries built around sex work (ex. the porn industry) play a large part in the objectification of women. Women in sex work are treated as objects of sexual desire. This is especially prevalent in pornography, where a large audience watches someone engage in sexual acts. In many cases, a popular genre of pornography is that involving two or more women. When an audience watches this video, they are viewing women having sex for their own pleasure. This can make them forget that they are watching real, normal people do something that a lot of people do. This was the main focus of my piece - the idea that women in sex work are not treated as people, but as objects instead,
Planning
Experimentation
Process
The first thing I did was take my final sketch pieces and transfer them onto the papers I was using for my final illustration. Then, I began to color them with Prismacolor colored pencils. I used these because I enjoyed the texture they gave me, and it was easy to shade with them. As I colored the sketches, I lined them with slightly darker colors in order to create a contrast. I finished up by coloring in the background pieces.
The first thing I did was take my final sketch pieces and transfer them onto the papers I was using for my final illustration. Then, I began to color them with Prismacolor colored pencils. I used these because I enjoyed the texture they gave me, and it was easy to shade with them. As I colored the sketches, I lined them with slightly darker colors in order to create a contrast. I finished up by coloring in the background pieces.
Reflection
Overall, I feel like this piece could have been better. I liked the figures in the first part, but I don't like how the background turned out. If I do this again, I think I'm going to change the placement of the eyes. In the other half of the piece, it was the opposite. I enjoyed the background, though I could have added more, and I hated the figures. Next time, I'm going to find more detailed references, and I'm going to do better coloring in the bodies. When I transfer this piece to gouache, I'm going to keep these criticisms in mind.
ACT Responses
Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationships between your inspiration and its effect upon your artwork:
I took the exact poses from the paintings I used as inspiration, and you can see the curved lines and use of unconventional objects of surrealism in my piece.
What is the overall approach (pov) the author (from research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The research found is very critical of the porn industry and the way sex workers are viewed by their audiences.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I have come to the conclusion that, while one may acknowledge that a sex worker is just a person making money, and that sex work is a job, there are viewpoints that are ingrained within a person's brain about those jobs because of the way they are talked about.
What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central idea/theme was the contradiction between seen and unseen, and the way porn actresses are viewed as objects rather than people.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
An inference I made while reading through my research was that many people have negative ideas about sex workers simply because of what they were taught.
I took the exact poses from the paintings I used as inspiration, and you can see the curved lines and use of unconventional objects of surrealism in my piece.
What is the overall approach (pov) the author (from research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The research found is very critical of the porn industry and the way sex workers are viewed by their audiences.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I have come to the conclusion that, while one may acknowledge that a sex worker is just a person making money, and that sex work is a job, there are viewpoints that are ingrained within a person's brain about those jobs because of the way they are talked about.
What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central idea/theme was the contradiction between seen and unseen, and the way porn actresses are viewed as objects rather than people.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
An inference I made while reading through my research was that many people have negative ideas about sex workers simply because of what they were taught.
Bibliography
- Holmes, Rachel 1994 Selling Sex for a Living. Theme issue “Body Politics” Agenda (23): 36-48.
- Jenness, Valerie 1990 From Sex as Sin to Sex as Work: COYOTE and the Reorganization of Prostitution as a Social Problem Social Problems 37 (3): 403- 420.
- Ritzer, George 2004 Classical Sociological Theory. New York: McGraw-Hill international Editions.
- Russell, Bertrand 1994 History of Western Philosophy. London: New Fetter Lane.
- Satz, Debra 1995 Markets in Women’s Sexual Labor Ethics 106 (1): 63-85.
- Overall, Christine 1992 What’s Wrong with Prostitution? Evaluating Sex Work Signs 17 (4). : 705-724.