I had a chance today to work on the piece I began a couple of weeks ago and had been avoiding ever since. I had a great first day with it then left it on the easel til today. Why was I avoiding it, you might well ask? Well! I had begun it by splashing paint all over and wanted to keep with that looseness, but I couldn't figure out how to do it. (If you've been reading my blog lately, you'll notice that's been a theme the last few weeks since Thomas's workshop.)
Today I decided that I wanted to work on it and what it needed was detail work so that the face would look better. That's not a tricky thing for me to do usually - details are what I do well. So it went pretty well, and I think she looks better.
I realize that when I've talked about this piece before, I haven't talked about the story behind it at all like I usually do with my models.
This young woman is, as I suppose is rather obvious if you look at the painting carefully, in the process of changing genders. She was born male and has come to realize that she feels like a woman so she has decided to go through the process of making her body congruent with her feelings about herself. I am in awe of her courage. I think it must be very difficult to feel like you were born in the wrong body then to decide to do something about it, despite all the messages society would inflict about that choice. I love the strength of her pose in this picture and how clearly and straightforwardly she stares at the viewer, bold, proud, clear.
I wish her many wonderful years as a woman. May it be exactly as she imagines.
About a year and a half ago I began this painting, but didn't finish it. It's very large (60"x40"), and her body is much larger than life size. I think I felt a little bit intimidated by it, or perhaps I got caught up in something else - I don't really remember -but it spent some time up in my storage loft until two weeks ago when I decided it was time to finish it.
