Throughout the charged history of depicting the naked body, female nudes have consistently been mistrusted to hold as much substance, if any, in comparison to the male nude. The use of the female body in art from symbolic to sexual display through the likes of allegories and archetypes has degraded our perception of her unclothed to such an extent that it is difficult even today for her to be read as an embodied person in a piece. Encounter is a series of large scale nude self portraits that seek to challenge this notion and examine the naked feminine body as one of agency rather than presentation for the viewer.
With this body of work, I want to admit viewers into an integral part of my process, the figure modeling relationship, to show the female nude in an unsexualized, yet assertive context - the way I see it when drawing myself. To me, undressing in front of the studio mirror is one of the highest expressions of my artistic agency, one that is charged with the euphoria of creative intuition that is then translated into my swift charcoal linework. The desire to capture, understand, and abstract anatomy to its utmost nuance guides my line and spontaneous drive throughout the entire modeling process. By simultaneously being the model and the artist, I reflect the obsessive gaze with which I study myself onto the viewer, placing them under my stare, but also in the position of experiencing the intensity and urgency of the modeling relationship from both sides.
I choose not to deny the viewer what may always be perceived as provocative within the patriarchal gaze, but instead to exist in it fully. I am allowing viewers into my modeling room to be reminded of the unique vulnerability and empowerment that is felt through the nude, and to therefore see the disrobing female body as present and confrontational rather than coyly displaying herself.