Fall Thesis Proposal

For many years, I have been fascinated by the idea of societal beauty standards and the affect it has on the female psyche. Daily, women are faced with thousands of images and articles telling them that are not good enough, simply because they are not small enough. My artwork works to rebel against this. My work explores the relationship between beauty standards and the female psyche, as well as the idea that every body is beautiful. with my figures of nude women of various sizes, portrayed in a positive light, and the accompanying imagery, and sometimes text, I am currently examining themes of  I examine the themes of body positivity, feminism and the effects of societal beauty standards on women through many mediums including drawing, painting, photography and digital editing/painting. As for my audience, I want my work to not only challenge them to think beyond what society has taught them, but I also want my work to instill a sense of anger at the idea of women being told by society that if they are small enough, quiet enough, compliant enough and saccharine enough, you will somehow be enough. In my current work I am creating large scale paintings of nude, and often faceless, women of plus sizes, displayed in a positive light to show the conceptual meaning behind my work, which can be summarized into one simple statement, “all bodies are beautiful not only in spite of their size but also because of their size”.

Over the past 13 weeks, I have had my ups and downs as an artist. I started off the semester thinking that I knew exactly what I wanted to do. Near the end of my junior year, after an entire semester of creative blocks and forcing work, I was able to create one really successful piece, a five foot tall painting of a woman’s nude back in hard edge. Because of the success I had with this piece, I started this semester continuing to work in hard edge, however after spending a significant amount of time focusing more on the mathematical precision of hard edge painting rather than on the concept of my art. I began to feel that there was better way to go the overwhelming theme to my work. So it was, pun intended, back to the drawing board. As the semester progressed, I began to pull away from the hard edge painting slowly; for a time I painted in “semi hard edge” and eventually stopped doing it altogether. I have since moved into this idea of painting these “fractured collages” I made through digital manipulations of several of my nude models and have really been focusing on the idea of my paintings look very skin-like and fleshy, which portrays a realness to the audience, thus making my concept more hard hitting and harder to  ignore.

To achieve these ideas I have been doing intense research on how exactly to make my paint more flesh-like, including watching tutorials and experimenting with acrylic mediums such as extenders, molding paste and gel medium, as well as taking the advice of the both my peers and my teachers and spent time at the art museum just looking at different painting techniques. In addition to the technical and historical research, I have also been researching new my conceptual ideas in greater depth through the many body positive blogs I follow and read regularly. I have found that I get the best information and inspiration from “underground” resources because I have come to realize that this movement of body positivity is still in its early stages and the best information comes from a few individuals who have chosen to think outside of what society tells them.

As for where my work is headed in the future, including the DAAPworks show and dry run, I intend to continue painting my figures in a positive light, portraying them confidently grabbing their fleshy stomachs or embracing themselves in an attempt to convey the ideals of body positivity and self-love to my audience. I will do this by continuing to work on making my paint more fleshy-like, researching and looking at more paintings to get more ideas on how paint can be handled by looking at different artists of the past. As it has been suggested is many of my critiques this semester, I will continue to keep pushing my works further into abstraction as well as increasing my canvas size until my figures are larger than life and invoke an imposing feeling in my audience.

In conclusion, I intend to continue working with the theme that has both fascinated and angered me for more than four years and I cannot wait to see what kind of work I will create as I begin to make my paintings larger than life to invoke an angry response in my audience that will in turn challenge them to think about my concept that all bodies are beautiful not only in spite of their size but also because of their size.

           

            

Current Works

As I'm sure you gleaned from my previous post, I had fallen behind and hit what was most likely a self imposed creativity block. However, a quick reality check really woke me up and inspired me to work. I got angry at myself and I in turn created one of my most successful pieces in only 8 hours of working on it, which was considerable less than the time I spent on my last big painting. I took one of the photo 'fractured collages' that I had created previously and I began painting. I was going to continue with the idea of the semi hard edge painting approach, however when I moved the piece to a bigger canvas, I realized that that technique wasn't as powerful or as successful as it had been on the smaller canvas.

 So with Frank's words swimming around my brain that I needed to be taking risks, I began throwing paint in the canvas, caring less about that mathematical precision I was doing previously but more about trying to make the paint more fleshy. I got so into the painting that I stopped focusing on trying to see the whole picture in the painting, I just got deep into the painting and let the painting do what it wanted instead of focusing on photo realism. I got so deep into it, that I didn't realize it was done until I took a bathroom break and as I was walking back towards the painting, it was as though a halo formed around it and cosmically told me it was finished. 
This painting actually restored my my need to create artwork.

And here's what I'm working on currently! This is going to be another heavily shadowed painting, however the subject matter speaks more on the idea that plus sized women are sexy to other people rather than just to themselves, however this kind of love is only amplified by self love. Obviously, there isn't much to it yet, as I just start and was only able to spend an hour or so on it, but so far I believe it is successful. Below is the picture that it will be referencing. 

This Semester's Work Part Four

This is where everything both fell apart and came together. I knew I was behind in my work. I had fallen behind due to extreme stress, busyness with my nearly full time job and also with my home life. I began thinking more about my future plans like where I would work after school, whether I wanted to stay working at Teavana and move up through the ranks and use that as my money making job and make art on the side,  planning my graduation trip, planning my wedding and figuring out what I needed to do to move out of my parents house. These are all important things but not nearly as important as I was making it. I laid my work aside and fell behind because I was more worried about what I needed to do after graduation and less about the things that would ultimately get me to graduation. This all changed when I got an email from Frank Herrman, who was concerned that I was not making enough work for advanced painting and reminding me the there was only 27 days until Thanksgiving Break and then when we came back from break, that is DAAP Hell Week and exam week followed that. With the prospect of DAAPworks looming, I, first spent several minutes crying because I was mad at myself for doing this, then I got to work. This reality check was just the kick in the pants that I needed. I went home that night and began painting one of my most successful pieces that I have made all year.

This Semester's Work Part Three

My work has changed a lot over the past few weeks, but this is where things got really hairy. I burst through that roadblock that I was experiencing. I had a really informative critique where it was suggested that to help push my work further into abstraction that I start taking different pictures of my models and splicing them together and focusing on a portion of the body to better portray that the idea of body positivity, which is essentially what my work has focused on for three years. I called this work series my 'fractured collages' and they were extremely successful, however like all meteors, it burned bright for a brief moment but then burnt out just as quickly as it had started. I quickly got tired of the idea. However the reason that this idea was so short lived, it is not because my life was so extremely busy and it just fell to the back burner. Because of working 30 hours a week on top of school and school work, I ended up having nearly 2 weeks where I did not paint a single thing.

This Semester's Work Part Two

After realizing the all hard edge approach was not getting my point across in the way that I had originally thought that it would, I began moving into this idea of semi hard edged pieces. I began sketching and painting my figures in a geometrical way but without taping off the edges as I been doing with my work previously. This was met with overwhelming satisfaction by everyone who viewed my work. They said it made the figure fold better and gave them a physicality that I made them slightly more realistic. I understood that, but nonetheless, the work that I was creating wasn't fulfilling me. I felt as though I was hitting that proverbial roadblock that sometimes plagues me.

As you can see from this picture, I was only able to crank out two pieces with this idea. 

This Semester's Work Part One

I started this semester off thinking that I knew exactly what I wanted to do. Last semester (spring '13), I had spent most of semester really confused and was forcing out work, however I was finally able to make one really great, successful piece at the very end of the semester; and 5 foot tall painting of a woman's back in hard edge.  Originally I was focusing on the aspect of portraying plus size women as goddesses and it turned way too kitschy for me and it made the women look like mythical creatures which I didn't want. I want my figures to say "I'm here now, an I'm not going away". So I was working with making my figures larger than life when I was just drawing and I "what would happen if" I drew the figure in hard edge. And it's kinda symbolic of being forceful in wanting to not be told to be that they must change themselves to be considered sexy. I continued working with the hard edged figures well into this semester and spent three weeks working with it exclusively. 

While I did enjoy creating this, I began feeling lost and burnt out of the idea of hard edge, as well as believing there was a better way to portray the overwhelming theme in my work, rather than reducing the female body into a system of straight lines.

Inspirational Artist Spotlight:Jenny Saville

Jenny Saville is a contemporary British painter, famous for large scale depictions of nude women. Saville gained her art degree at the Glasgow School of Art in 1992, but was later offered a six month scholarship to attend the University of Cincinnati’s DAAP program, where she states that she saw "Lots of big women. Big white flesh in shorts and T-shirts. It was good to see because they had the physicality that I was interested in"

After completing her post graduate degree at Slade School of Fine Art, Jenny quickly rose to fame when one of England’s top collectors, Charles Saatchi, bought the entirety of her senior show and supported for 18 months, while she created new works that he in turn displayed at the Saatchi Gallery in London. Shortly after her contract with Saatchi ended, Saville emerged as a Young British Artist (YBA) and is now widely considered to be an abject artist because of the controversial subject matter that she deals with. She credits that her feminist subject matter of nude obese women with often obscured or erased faces to her time spent in America, specifically of her time in Cincinnati at DAAP.

Since her debut in 1992, Saville's focus has remained on the female body, slightly deviating into subjects with "floating or in determinant gender," painting large scale paintings of transgender people. Her published sketches and documents include surgical photographs of liposuction, trauma victims, deformity correction, disease states and transgender patients.

Although Saville lives and works in Oxford, England, she has said that she prefers to show in America.  "It is odd to be showing in Britain. I've been shown a lot in America; that's my favorite place to show. We're quite conceptually driven in Britain. There's less guilt about being a painter over there."

My work is very similar to Jenny Saville, My work is also of a feminist subject matter, dealing with ideas of body positivity, body image, societal beauty standards and sexuality and I achieve this by depicting the fat female form in acrylic paint, digital mediums, pastels and colored pencils. I am really obsessed with the physicality of rolling flesh and portraying beauty in the things that much of society deems ugly. Saville works in a similar way, although her work is less about trying to change society like I am, but rather she portrays women because she is fascinated by them and their figures. 

Inspirational Artist Snapshot: Jenny Roesel Ustick

Jenny Ustick. What can I say about Jenny Ustick. If any teacher has ever provided me with the best guidance, had the best understanding of my work and pushed me the furthest both visually and conceptually, it has to be Jenny. Between the two drawing classes I've taken with Jenny, we have cultivated a great relationship and she has provided me endless instruction, inspiration and resources to continue pushing my work further, so that my work is not only strong conceptually, but also technically.

Jenny currently teaches several classes at the University of Cincinnati, ranging from introductory level art studies all the way up to senior level classes, including Senior Thesis, which I have the honor of taking with her next semester. She also owns a brewery, is a working artist as well as a cancer survivor.

Body Positive Yoga

Late last year I took a yoga class as part of essentially "practicing what I preach". I wanted to put my radical self love to work in my life and what I found was that yoga only made me appreciate my body even more and love what it was capable of. The only problem was that I was one of the very few plus sized women in that class and I certainly was the biggest, and while I could do nearly every pose quite well, there were some poses that I could not do, not because I was incapable or not flexible enough, but because my belly got in the way. So instead of hating my belly, and therefore going against everything I stand for and make work about, I turned to this wonderful resource called Body Positive Yoga which not only empowered to keep loving my body but also showed me other poses I could do to get the same stretch but not be mad at my belly and showed me beautiful pictures of gorgeous, fat women doing poses that many thinner people cannot due. This heightened awareness of self has inspired me greatly over the past year and continues to do so today.

Dances With Fat

One of the other website that provides me with endless information and inspiration is a blog run by the wonderful Ragen Chastain. DWF daily discusses and argues that you can be both fat AND healthy. Chastain is considered to be 'super obese' yet she is considered extremely healthy and named her blog because she is an incredible dancer. I love reading her articles and seeing pictures of her doing standing toe touches, but my favorite part is her 'read my hate mail' section. She actually posts the hurtful comments and ignorance driven hate mail that she receives. She take these terrible comments and advertises on the page so that her hate mail actually pays her, which is wonderful because it is, in a sense, a proverbial slap in the face to the people who sent them originally.

Adipositivity

ad·i·pose

[ad-uh-pohs]

adjective

1.

fatty; consisting of, resembling, or relating to fat.

pos·i·tiv·i·ty

[poz-i-tiv-i-tee]  Show IPA

noun, plural pos·i·tiv·i·ties.

1.

the state or character of being positive: a positivity that accepts the world as it is.

The Adipositivity Project is a website that has given me a lot of inspiration of the last semester. At adipositivity, they post a lot of pictures of both women and men of all ages and races who have proudly accepted their bodies and show them proudly for everyone. This is in direct contrast that people who's bodies that are big are automatically deemed ugly, when in all actually, all bodies are beautiful. I was introduced to this wonderful website when I showed my work to my senior thesis class at the beginning of the semester. A classmate suggested I check it out and upon doing so I ended up finding some of very valuable inspiration that I needed desperately this semester.

Currently, the Adipositivity website is down due to a computer crash and has been down since the end of August. However much of website's previous content has since been posted on tumblr, which I follow regularly. 

Yikes....

This semester has been extremely stressful. I have fallen extremely behind in posting regularly on this blog, but I did post a lot on my personal blog about how was I was feeling, so this week I will be posting a lot this week to catch up. So sit back, buckle up and get ready for a run down of how my semester has been treating me artistically, emotionally and mentally.

How to make your own paint

Paint is expensive. Grant you, you are paying for quality so if you make your own paint, don't expect the same movability or quality as that made by the professionals. I make my own paint from time to time, for various reasons, whether they be money related or if it has a specific correlation to my work, like using makeup as pigment to tint my paint, which goes well with my ongoing theme of body image and beauty standards.

In this blog post, I'm going to show you how easy it is to make your own paint. It's easy to make a variety of paints with things you probably have at your house right now.

To make a paint that is thick and dimensional, like puffy paint, all you have to do is mix a few simple ingredients.

• 1/2 cup salt
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/4-1/2 water
• Food coloring or other pigments

Combine all these ingredients and slowly mix in the water until it is the consistency of a milkshake. Add colorant until you achieve your desired colored. 

However, for a looser paint that you can spread with a brush, take the above recipe and add a half teaspoon of vegetable oil and boil the ingredients so that ingredients blend into a smooth mixture. This is important if you are using a dry colorant.

I learned how to do this thanks to about.com

ArtWorks Cincinnati

Last week, we visited ArtWorks. Their website describes them as such "ArtWorks is a non-profit arts organization that empowers and inspires the creative community to transform our everyday environments through employment, apprenticeships, education, community partnerships, and civic engagement".

ArtWorks is a truly wonderful organization and I have gotten the wonderful opportunity to paint a mural with them. However, I was mildly disappointed in this field trip. I didn't feel like I gained any knowledge about ArtWorks that I didn't already know plus I was utterly humiliated when Tamara Harkavy, founder and artistic director of ArtWorks asked me to tell everyone about my experience and struggles involved in the Helentown mural project with which I was associated with. I have social anxiety and she put me on the spot, which nearly sent me into a panic attack and I completely froze up and couldn't think about anything but every one's eyes on me. Then the field trip ran over and we nearly got a ticket because our meter ran over. I would like to go back and actually get to tour the facilities and actually get to learn more about the business besides that which you can find on their website.

The Helentown Mural that I helped paint!

Cedric Michael Cox

Last month Cedric Michael Cox came in and visited our class. His work is so very different from mine (but awesome nonetheless), but I was really taken by him as a person. A friend of mine has worked as an intern for him several times and she told me that he is awesome a happy and chipper person and a great, down to earth artist who is always full of wonderful advice.

I don't remember the specifics of the presentation but what I really enjoyed about him was that his presentation was a grim look into the future. He wasn't angry or bitter about his life or the art community, but was as eager and excited as a college student who has just graduated and has his entire future ahead of him. He provided useful advice on how to not be a starving artist, like lowering your expectations and living expenses and how to grants and scholarships, while still maintaining that fervor for life and your art, so you don't end up as a angry old man, bitter because you never 'made it'. Be happy and make the art that you need to keep yourself sane.

Like I said, he was a truly inspiration artist and speaker. For more information on him, please visit his personal art blog.

An Interview with Jenny Ustick

Earlier this year, I got the amazing opportunity to interview one of my favorite local artists, Jenny Ustick. I have taken many classes with her and she is one of the most inspirational women I know, as well as a jack of all trades. She is a drawing artist, a sculptor, an installation artist, a fiber art and yarn bomber with the Cincinnati Bombshells and also a brewer of delicious craft beer at the Mount Caramel Brewing Company. Below are the interview questions I asked and her answers.



1. Location of your studio

Complicated. My husband and I own a home on a half acre of land, and on that property is a separate building that used to be a tool shed. It's a large shed, so we improved it to have heat and a/c, a couple of windows, and nice French doors. I used it as a studio until moving to Michigan in 2008. When we moved back in 2011, it became a storage area and I haven't done any work in it since. When i do make work at home, it's in my garage or kitchen. This summer, we will clear out the studio and I will begin making work in it again. However, there is a possibility of building another barn, in which case I would work in there. Additionally, because I have done and do so much collaborative work, a lot of the studio work has been completed in the spaces owned or rented by my collaborators.

2. how long have you had this studio?

Small studio on my property: since 2002.



3. why did you get a studio?

Even though my studio changes locations, and when my studio is located on my property, it's good to be able to go to a place separate from your living space in order to really feel like you are at work.


4. How do you financially support your artwork? (Through sales, salary, grants, etc.)

My teaching job here at the university is the primary means of support. In the summers, I work with ArtWorks, and I am essentially commissioned to create public artworks.

5. What are the problems you face in getting your artwork done?

Distractions, tiredness, overextension, sometimes feeling like my creative energy for the day is spent teaching.


6. What do you do to market yourself as an artist?

I have a personal website, and am active on social media platforms.
(View her personal website here)


7. What type of person buys your art?

Often philanthropists or patrons of the arts, supporters of the nonprofits with which I am associated.



8. What are your greatest challenges as an artist?

Distractions, limited time to devote to my solo work, fear and anxiety about money.

9. What are your greatest rewards as an artist?

Sharing what I do with others, with my community. Teaching. Realizing I have many gifts and talents that a lot of folks desire, and enjoying the feeling of artistic alchemy that occurs when I've taken something simple and made something kind of magical or powerful out of it.


10. What recommendations would you give to an artist who is just starting out?

Learn to quiet your self doubt. Don't be like a plastic bag in the wind and just float around with he trends or with every little bit of advice you get. That said, listen to feedback. Consider it--you can use it or reject it, but consider it. It represents what others see in your work. It's important to know how your work is seen, and who your audience is. Then out that through the filter of your intentions. To become a professional artist means that you have made the decision to present your work to the public, and you have to be aware that it will be judged. Wherever, that doesn't mean that you should tailor your work to someone else. Learn how to take rejection gracefully. Be nice to people--they will remember you later. Ask for what you want. There is no fairy godmother waiting to fulfill your every wish. You have to let people know you want an opportunity. Sometimes you have to be aggressive, sometimes you have to be patient.

My Favorite Band

As I have stated several times in the last hour (I procrastinated on a blogging assignment so No I have to update a ton really fast) I am really inspired not only by artists such as Jenny Ustick (I'll write about her later), Euan Uglow, Tina Tamarro and Rebecca Bickers but also by musical artists. Music is a huge factor in my art, in fact, it's difficult to create anything without music playing.

Panic! At The Disco is my all time favorite band. I discovered them in a very dark time in my life, and their music really helped me climb out of a really terrible depression because they made me feel like I wasn't alone. Even into my adulthood they have remained one of my biggest influences because their music brings back so many memories of the depression I survived. They remind me of what I have overcome and continue to inspire me to keep going.

My work is much different from their's in many obvious reasons, they create music and I create visual art, but in the end we create work about life, love and the feelings associated with these themes. Grant you, my work deals more with body issues but also with the feelings associated with them and how they affect the lives of those oppressed by them.

An Inspiration How-To

Whenever I feel like I am in a rut with my art making, I have to find little ways to get inspired to create. I get inspired by a lot of little things, but for me, two things always work for me, Emotion and Music. So here is a little how to by Trinity Sutterfield.

1. Get fired up. Find something that makes you feel an extreme emotion. For me, anger and sadness work best. When things make me extremely sad or extremely angry, my work is unparalleled to my work that I create when I'm happy. I get fired up by running a body positivity blog called CurvessAhead.

2. Find some new music. Or some old, whatever, but be willing to try new music; it could completely change how you feel, it which case, see number one. I highly suggest getting a Pandora Radio account,  as it will inspire you with comfortable, familiar music followed by new and exciting music.

I could go on, but for me, these are the top ways for me to get inspired. I hope it helps! Now lets get creating!

My Technical Process

I don't really have a "technical process". My work is all very 'whim-y'. I typically get inspired by getting fired up and then I have to create simply to remedy my feelings. But I have noticed that I work better under pressure. I send too much time on my blog, trintrintrini.tumblr.com, and that helps me waste time, I usually will leave a project until the last few days until it's due just so that I feel the pressure, but can also have a decent sleep schedule, because we all know that Trinity is very unpleasant to be around if I don't get enough sleep.

But the most important thing to have while creating is a good playlist. On my itunes, I have a playlist called creART, which is a play on spelling that helps me create art. This playlist includes everything from Panic! At The Disco (my favorite band), all the way to the pure symphonic orchestra music, which creates some inspiration for me.

Finding inspiration. My non-technical research process

I find inspiration in everything I see. The nature of my work has to do a lot with body image, health at every size and beauty standards perpetuated by the media. I spend a lot of time on body positive blogs like Dances With Fat, Body Positive Yoga and scrolling through the Fat Positive and Body Positive tags on Tumblr. But what really gets me going is when I see things in the media, like magazines, them promoting unhealthy weight loss and body hate, and then I get fired up and start writing long dissertations and drawing my feelings out. It's easy to make art when you're really angry about something.

It's been awhile since a made a post. So here's an update! I have made so much progress in figuring out what I want to do for right now. I was focussing on making women feel empowered and that is still a primary goal an underlying theme in my work, but I'm taking it a step further and casting women in the role of goddesses, particularly fertility goddesses because they were valued and praised by their size instead of demeaned. I was going to use the body as a canvas, and I may still do that, but right now I am focusing just in the goddess aspect and editing the images of my models in photoshop.

I know this is just a crappy picture of the screen, but I'm updating this from my phone. I'll post a better picture tomorrow, but hey look at this!

I'm not normally a photographer but a good friend of mine is and she inspired me to do this project. You can view Becca's blog here.

So, I've spent awhile being really confused about where I wanted to go next. I was really confused after my last advanced drawing class because while I was inspired by Alex Grey's work, I felt like I was betraying myself and my working thesis. For now I've decided I want to work with female bodies just filling up the entire canvas, with little to no background. A few examples:

Advanced Drawing and Developing a New Idea

So I just had my second critique in advanced drawing. Mostly I've been working on anatomy sketches so that I have a better understanding of the muscles structure of a human, since that's what I typically focus on in my own work. So my teacher, Denise, suggested I continue working with body systems: muscles, veins and bone structures, as a part if my figures, like the artist Alex Grey. I looked at his work and really enjoyed it, although I know that's not specifically where I want to go next, but I am going to try to apply what I've learned about muscle structure to my figures.

I'm still playing around with the idea of modern day fertility figures, however now I'm contemplating combining body systems and birth with them.
Once I get a few solid sketches out, I'll post them on here!

Below are four images of Alex Grey's work I really enjoyed and will use as inspiration. The fifth image is another one of my anatomy sketches.

Anatomy Studies 1/20/13

Just a few pictures of today's sketches, also shown on my other art blog trinitysutterfield.tumblr.com

I Believe an Introduction is in Order

Hello, I'm Trinity Sutterfield. I am an activist/figure artist, living in Cincinnati and attending the University of Cincinnati- DAAP. My work tends to focus on bodyimage, fertility and sexuality, but specifically the fat female form and bodypositivity. I get a lot of my inspiration from spending a lot of time 'people watching', practicing what I preach and doing a lot of research. I typically draw the nude femaleform and accentuate and idealize her natural assets (and often the things thatsociety deems unacceptable or ugly) like stretch marks and fat rolls. My workis almost like modern day fertility goddesses. 
Here are some images!