“Saturday 9:15 AM” 16 × 20 inches, Crayon on toned paper
This is a handmade, original work of art NOT A PRINT and NOT AI GENERATED
FREE SHIPPING Shipping takes 3–4 Weeks This ships from San Carlos, California (The San Francisco Bay Area). I use UPS and sometimes US Post.
This drawing grew out of a question about how I wanted to portray myself. Would I seem more vulnerable nude or in underwear? Here, I’m nude, standing with my arms crossed and looking into a bathroom mirror. We see my back close to us and the front of my body in the reflection. The mirror offers a more complete view, but it also gives me another way to look at and evaluate myself.
I was thinking about bathrooms and mirrors in film noir, where looking into a mirror can become a way of showing self-reflection. In painting, I think the mirror can suggest a vanitas, a reminder of aging and the temporary nature of the body. There can be something a little hypocritical about it too. We give the image a serious explanation, but the mirror also provides an excuse to show the body from two directions. Thinking about artists such as Paul Cadmus and Degas’s bathers, I’m interested in how bathing and other private routines give artists an occasion to look at the nude.
For me, the bathroom is also a place of self-evaluation, sometimes even shame. Yet the light is beautiful. My crossed arms have a shape I like, almost muscular and masculine. I can almost see why my lover finds me attractive. At the same time, I’m frustrated and critical of what I see. Those feelings exist together.
The dark crayon and white hatching let me explore the body and the light without smoothing away all the marks. The warm paper sits between them. Curving shoulders and folded arms meet the harder geometry of the sink, tiles, and mirror. I’m working with the distinction between the body outside the mirror and the image inside it, while also asking which version of myself I’m looking at. My morning ablutions can be a time to psyche myself up and out.
“Saturday 9:15 AM” 16 × 20 inches, Crayon on toned paper
This is a handmade, original work of art NOT A PRINT and NOT AI GENERATED
FREE SHIPPING Shipping takes 3–4 Weeks This ships from San Carlos, California (The San Francisco Bay Area). I use UPS and sometimes US Post.
This drawing grew out of a question about how I wanted to portray myself. Would I seem more vulnerable nude or in underwear? Here, I’m nude, standing with my arms crossed and looking into a bathroom mirror. We see my back close to us and the front of my body in the reflection. The mirror offers a more complete view, but it also gives me another way to look at and evaluate myself.
I was thinking about bathrooms and mirrors in film noir, where looking into a mirror can become a way of showing self-reflection. In painting, I think the mirror can suggest a vanitas, a reminder of aging and the temporary nature of the body. There can be something a little hypocritical about it too. We give the image a serious explanation, but the mirror also provides an excuse to show the body from two directions. Thinking about artists such as Paul Cadmus and Degas’s bathers, I’m interested in how bathing and other private routines give artists an occasion to look at the nude.
For me, the bathroom is also a place of self-evaluation, sometimes even shame. Yet the light is beautiful. My crossed arms have a shape I like, almost muscular and masculine. I can almost see why my lover finds me attractive. At the same time, I’m frustrated and critical of what I see. Those feelings exist together.
The dark crayon and white hatching let me explore the body and the light without smoothing away all the marks. The warm paper sits between them. Curving shoulders and folded arms meet the harder geometry of the sink, tiles, and mirror. I’m working with the distinction between the body outside the mirror and the image inside it, while also asking which version of myself I’m looking at. My morning ablutions can be a time to psyche myself up and out.
