Woman (Un)Defined
“feminist”: “women who don’t want to be treated like shit” (Su quoted in Gay).
For this project, it is safe to say my inspiration has been founded on a subconscious reaction to years of pent up frustration in regards to anything from daily street harassment to more fundamentally, the assumed undertone of my overall potential of self-sufficiency, solely based on my gender.
MY INITIAL THOUGHTS: As I prepared for the project, I started to realize how much subconscious information I (unfortunately) have accessible to me, not only from personal experience but through the simple exercise of––wait for it––googling the definition of “woman.” While the generic definition of a woman, as one might assume is “an adult human female,” the following definitions offer a more detailed description of what it truly means to be a woman and more specifically, some synonyms for the term. While the second definition offered is “a female worker or employee,” this is rather gracious in regards to the overall lack of female presence in an ordinary workplace; however, I guess it is worth a mention. Just third on the list is “a wife, girlfriend, or lover,” with the thoughtful example of a sentence: “he wondered whether Billy had his woman with him.” “Woman” is therefore and starting at that point continually referred to as the indirect object, the very definition objectifying a woman as a possession, only existing in relation to another. Some synonyms offered include “sweetheart, partner, inamorata, lover, mistress, babe, baby––”he found himself a new woman.” In conclusion, the subliminal message offered in the simple definitions of a woman is that, a woman is an object to be had, an indirect piece of not only a sentence, but of a relationship and furthermore, a society–– a woman is “HIS.”
For my visual aesthetic, I went through countless methods or portraying my theme and through trial and error. First, I obviously started with my nine paintings, all portraying slightly different women in slightly different ways with the same sketch aesthetic and painted with rolled up paper. As I am not usually a digital person, I primarily wanted to challenge myself to venture into that realm and put to use that which I learned in this class, namely how to make a simple GIF. I played around with color and saturation filters to amp up my hand drawn paintings and created, I believe, visually pleasing and as I like all things, chaotic pieces of digital, animated art. I created 9 gifs for each paintings, all varying in color, creating what I thought to be an adequate series of digital art that i would turn into a grid of simultaneous gifs, with the definition of a woman superimposed over it.
(posting a gif isnt working) footwoman-t96aev 
I played with text movement, trying to create something I was satisfied with; however, as I often find whilst working digitally, I couldn’t find a point where I felt excited about the outcome and rewarded in the work I put in
So, around 2 weeks before the project was due, I decided to switch mindsets and focus on creating a physical collage by printing out my edited versions that I used for my GIFs and use those highly saturated renditions to create a new piece entirely. While I obviously continued making paintings in order to create the series I thought I wanted, it became clear which were the most successful and meaningful in order to portray my message. I ended up choosing the three first ones I did, which were clearly the most straightforward and cohesive. For that Wednesday Critique, I presented a grid of 9 images, 3 of the same paintings repeated in a row, edited differently.
I was fortunate enough to receive advice from both Eddie and Ana that changed my project and turned me in the right direction. From that point on, I decided to focus in on only 1 version of each painting (the final 3).
I decided upon 3 large digitally edited paintings (3 chosen out of my 9), which were then printed, collaged on and painted over.
Ultimately, I then painted over each with the same technique I used for the original paintings, to not only add more depth but to bring in colors of other parts of the series into all of them to create a more cohesive group. I then collaged all of the synonyms from the definition, as well as the phrases such as “he found himself a new woman” and “dont be daft, woman” all sentence examples given and all primary examples of women being objectified and referred to only as in reference to a man, not as an individual or a prominent subject. I also included slight details of rings insinuating her belonging to a man and her heart (belongs to him) and brain (only thinking of him). While all small details, they dramaticize and accentuate the message. The three pieces progressively create my message that Women…Are Tired Of Being…”His” (defined by their gender.
Personally, i was really satisfied with the way my series came out, especially considering how much time i wasted on indecision and apprehension. I obviously learned that sometimes experimentation and a long process of uncertainty is not necessarily a bad thing. While I was pretty stressed and did not know where this project was going to take me, I am really glad that I started out digitally, otherwise i would never have thought of repurposing my paintings and creating an entirely different piece with simple photoshop editing and high saturation. While I obviously love the paintings as they are, I think the new digital versions printed out and collage over add a very new genre of art to my usual techniques and still allow me to feel rewarded and satisfied with the physical outcome, something I learn time and time again just isnt the same when working only on the computer.
I am also super pleased with how the words and definition played a role in portraying my message of very baseline feminism in that even when the word ‘woman” is googled, the definition given, too, represents the underestimated and misrepresented ideals of how a woman lives, as “his” and as the object. I think my message is powerful yet not too forthright being that I didn’t create any examples of my own, I rather took what I was given and derived a message from it.
I do wish I had taken more care in my presentation, and also wish I was able to figure out how to print in higher definition; other than that, I think the chaos and message of the piece(s) are enough to make me proud of it!
As for the future, I will definitely, definitely continue to challenge myself to work digitally and continue to search for messages in the world that I personally feel are meaningful and can be further portrayed / or confronted in art. I am very grateful to have had this class to introduce me to the world of digital art that I was very relatively new to before and for this final project which allowed me to explore all I’ve learned this semester and put it into a final project I am proud of.
