Art History Blonded

These images in the “Art History” series stem from my “Blonde in Atlanta” series. I am interested in gender roles and the stereotyping. My work is often about gender roles, sexuality and behavior. Mass media has affected our outlook on this. Gender roles of the female in the content of magazines, television reveal the primary concerns of women are with regards to appearance, romance and household activities. This is exemplified even throughout art history.

As an artist projecting myself through these images, I thought the most successful way was to portray the contemporary female back through the history of art. Females were usually shown as the model, often nude, and the male was the artist. I chose to portray the Blonde with all the stereotyping and sexuality that goes along with it in the strong, assertive and producing role.

The latest work in this series “Super Blonde” depicts myself as sort of a comic book character. This was a branch off from one of the pop art images in the earlier series Four Pop Blondes. The work is largely about myself as I have heard the comment “you do not look like the type of woman who would be producing this magnitude of work.”

This work fits in with the contemporary work of today as many artists choose to deal with social and psychological issues through photography using careful staging and lighting. Artists to cite include Philip Dicorcia, Jan Saudek and Cindy Sherman.

My intentions are not to change the roles, but instead to portray how females and males exhibit a full range of human emotions, aspirations, roles and behaviors. My hope is that the images will enhance one’s realistic appraisal of ability self-confidence and societal station.