Knitted Nudes
Artist Statement
The idea of Femininity is traditionally three-fold: Maiden, Mother, and Matron. In this body of work I attempt to use signals of each so as to unify them in the mind of the viewer into one vision of woman.
The subject matter, the female nude, falls into a tradition at least as old as the written word. In the setting of an Art Gallery, encountering an image of the female nude brings back the works of past ages, thus echoing the wisdom of the Matron figure as one of humanity's elders.
The medium, knitting, is archetypically a skill passed down from mother to daughter. By using a medium that has an assumed gender of the creator, and is, for the most part, viewed as motherly, the Mother aspect of femininity is folded into the work.
Using black and white images at first harkens to an older era, though the black and white image is, in itself, timeless. Infusing a small bit of colour into the image suggests an emerging nature and identity, that of the Maiden.
It is necessary to universalize the subject though. Each subject is acknowledged by name in the title of the piece, but the intentional low resolution of the finished piece allows the viewer to fill in the details of appearance. The models sought range the entire scope of womanhood, Matron to Maiden, Curvy to Thin. Thus the whole series, when viewed, reinforces the whole.
