Sustained Investigation #10

Title: Grow

Size: 14'' x 9''

Statement:

This piece is connecting the natural world with the female body. I wanted to show the growth and fertility that is associated with the female body by having a bunch of flowers growing out of the models body. I used orchids as the flowers because orchids have been used in art to represent female sexuality. The actual flower itself can often look like female genitalia. I decided to further the connection between the body and the flower by continuing the hair into the roots of the flower.

Originally I wanted to make a block print of a female body and then draw flowers coming out of the body. I decided against doing the print because I wanted the body to be more detailed. I ended up using colored pencils and chalk pastel pencils on toned pastel paper. I used these materials because I wanted to get as much detail as possible in the flowers to show how they can look like the female body and therefore represent female sexuality. I originally was only going to use colored pencil, but I'm glad I found the chalk pencils because they added much more vibrant whites and yellows to the flowers.

I kind of already talked about how the piece evolved, but it mostly evolved through the use of materials. I started with the idea of a woman laying down with flowers growing out of her. First I wanted to make a block print, but when I began sketching out the body on the linoleum block, I realized I wanted more detail in the body than what would show up in a print. I then sketched a naked body on toned paper and decided to use colored pencils to bring color to the image. I then found colored chalk pencils that brought a great amount of color and depth to the image that I loved.

I decided to show two images above because the one that I scanned shows the detail and depth in the flowers, but the colors in the body disappeared. I shared the photo I took with my phone, because it captured the colors in the body.