Three-dimensions in the making! If I were a girl...

Last week I met with Chinn and Sarah and received extremely valuable input in terms of my theory, history, and research paper. From last week, I have continued the idea of power in association with hair,  female sexuality, gesture and poses from John Berger's book Ways of Seeing . I started to think about how the majority of my gay friends are drag queens, and what it means to change genders in one day. I am constantly surrounded by the drag community as I find myself enamored by the lavish and decadent fashions of drag characters. I interviewed two of my closest friends who are part-time drag performers, and asked them two questions: "What is it about drag that attracts you?" and "How did you find your drag character?" WARNING: Some adult language!!


Kyle's interview:

Jody's interview:


I always knew the love my friends had for being drag queens, but I never really discussed it with them at this depth.  I discussed with Chinn and Sarah how I've started to compare the female characters I draw/paint in my art to my friends' drag characters. The female figures I create allow me to temporarily become something I would not able to by other means. When making my characters, I can make any decisions in regards to hair, fashion, and anatomy, which I think is a major tie to how my friends see their female alter-egos. To dive further into these connections, I played the part myself and became my female personas in real life. With the help of both Kyle and Jody, I transformed:
   

It was not a pleasant process, in fact it was quite a painful process. My face was picked, prodded and brushed with layer after layer of make-up. By the end, my eyes were red and watered, and I could feel my skin dry out from the amount of product on my face as it became raw from the constant rubbing and blending. After putting on the wigs, and the dress and jewelry, I felt the exact same feelings my friends had described: empowerment, sexiness, courage. Suddenly, I was not myself and I had embodied a whole new personality and set of mannerisms. I felt like I could take on the world, and I had no care what or who stood in my way. I developed a deeper respect for my friends who do this several times a week, because of the amount of pain I felt from just one time (I can't imagine what it's like to dance on a brightly-lit stage in costume, hair, and six-inch heels for a bar or club full of strangers). The whole process was very exhilarating, and I definitely learned what it was like, first hand, to possess some of the same abilities and qualities as the females who permeate my art.

Finally, I started working on my next art piece. I am taking one of my old drawings, and turning it into a sculpture:

This will be my focus for the upcoming week. I will be looking more into the research of sexuality in art, specifically LGBT gender theory and how I can relate it to the images I create. I will also be researching some of the artists that Sarah and Chinn gave me to find new sources of inspiration. I'm very excited for my ideas that are coming next!