feminineSWAG

The Pin-up Grrl paintings arose from my usual interest in the collaboration of a woman’s interior world and her exterior presentation, or simply: feminine identity. Usually fashion as costume is my focus, but in this series I used a woman’s unclothed body to display sexuality, a mix of power and vulnerability.

Women’s nude bodies are attributed with a powerful ability to visually express sexuality, but to be naked is also a physical form of vulnerability. It is exciting to see a woman combine a sensual, wild, untrained freedom with a confident self-mastery: or feminineSWAG. The struggle for balance in a push/pull of power and vulnerability creates an interesting tension.

Burlesque is performance which reconciles the exterior and the interior. No one can see the inner you because the inner you does not have a tangible form. This leaves one free to fantasize and create a physical form of “inner innerliness”. Not only do you not know who you are, but you don’t know how others view you, so this leaves complete freedom to find a form of self-expression that truly amuzes (amuses/amazes) you.

To master ones’ presentation takes confidence in wielding the tool of one’s own body. But feminineSWAG can’t just look authentic, it has to come from an inner authenticity. For success to be achieved for both viewed and viewer there needs to be a collaboration of interest between the internal and external. Between a woman’s invisible spirit and her visible form. Just as glamour and fashion provide power to its’ wearer so does a woman’s naked body. Without clothes a woman still performs, but she must always perform for herself.

The key to good Burlesque as well as good fashion sense is to be skilled in self-objectification. The trick is to be able to view oneself without subjective bias from the outside. But does this concept hinder natural free expression? Don’t people want to be loved for who they really are, not just how they appear to be? But as I stated before, who are we really? Does anyone truly know? What “inner innerliness” are we afraid to express or not express clearly enough? Learning to objectify oneself, to see oneself as a container, knowing that it is only the exterior and doesn’t automatically reflect what is on the inside is an important lesson. This lesson is critical as a woman ages. My mother recounted that she is shocked when she looks in the mirror because it does not reflect accurately what she feels herself to be on the inside, a fresh 24 year old.

Stepping away from that ideal of young beautiful perfection is a form of self-respect. But as French women know best the exterior needs cultivation. And in a way that is playful and arises from the interior direct, with flaws, fantasies and all. Beauty is found in imperfections, which create distinction and leaves the general for pursuit of the extraordinary. FeminineSWAG combines the inner subjective natural with the objective artifice. The deep with the shallow. The truth with the lie. All for the benefit of a woman who looks and is looked at.