Kathrin Diestel (100)

-oh sister-

Kathrin writes:

i made this little collage when my sister was institutionalized about two years ago.
she suffered from a fit of paranoia and was scared all the time.
all the doctors could do "for" her was sedate her, tranquilize her.
the saddest thing about all this is that some of her scares were so real and understandable.
she feels like a victim of capitalism and exploitation which of course is true for all of us to a certain degree.
after a few weeks she was sent home from the mental institution and one and a half years later the same thing happened again.
i feel so terribly sad for her and this picture should show my feelings as well as hers.

Kathrin Diestel

Bianca den Breejen (99)

Bianca writes:

My work is the result of research into the psychological processes of the young female. The ways in which she experiences her sense, her body, her existence. It’s a deepening of understanding the boundaries between our physical bodies and our perception thereof, between our selves and our reflections. I am fascinated by the enigma of the human body, by the ways in which it could be made to seem an apparition. Space around me is the starting point for my work. I play hide and seek with space, to compare the fragility of the models body with the powerful presence of space and the objects present within it. My work forms a row of, sometimes voyeuristic, windows, each granting a glimpse into the canyons of internal life and death.

www.biancadenbreejen.com

Emma-Kate Guimond (98)

-Auntie-

-Milk mamma-

-Pocketmom-

Emma-Kate writes:

big titty mama milky explores the archetype of the Great Mother in Her various aspects filtered through my personal psyche to create a sort of florid dreamscape of pop-up idiosyncratic symbology. The multi-layered work composes an aesthetical dimension that is at once cartoony, DIY, primordial and new age. The first aspect of the work is a series of small dolls. Made from conceptually rich materials such as hair, bugs, stones, felt and lace, the dolls refer to the feminine practices of craft, fashion and witchcraft. Modeled after Paleolithic and Neolithic sculptures, each doll exhibits primary symbols that engender our experience of Mother. Each figure is an expression of my own feminine archetypes and my potential to embody within my being the power of the Mother. I have imbued within each of them a character informed by their physical composition - their bodies, as well as their archetype.

Here are the biographies of the dolls:

-Auntie is a trickster who teases and brings chaos to all that is logical. She is the menace of the unknown. Her face is a drawing of my god mother and auntie, Francine who I consider to be a trickster herself. She is made from my hair, mylar and pencil drawing.
-Milk mamma is the symbol of nutrition. From within her vessel she bears unto her children the milk for growth and transformation. As she is faceless, she is purely this.... rock, button, thread, pillow stuffing, mylar and pencil crayon...
felt marker.
-Pocketmom is the perilous snatch. Large body and small face, she may swallow you whole... hair, felt, thread, mylar drawing with pencil.

www.tendermorsels-tendermorsels.blogspot.com

Suzanne Szucs (97)

Polaroids from "Journal, In Progress" a 15 year, daily self-portrait Polaroid project.

Suzanne writes:

I decided early on in my artistic career that I would address issues of the body and identity in a straight-forward and non-glamorous way. Over the course of 15 years, I made a Polaroid self-portrait everyday, accumulating over 5000 images. To photograph myself, for Journal, In Progress has meant photographing all of my self, every type of moment – heartache and happiness, drunkenness and sex, excitement and boredom, beauty and repugnance – everything. Although I started the project as purely self-portraits, people came into it quite soon, because I discovered that we are more than single selves – we are also described by the people who share our lives. Though I did not set out to go there, I think the project captures the uniqueness of life.
Our bodies are huge – we live and eat and breathe through them. The notion of body and body image suggests and controls everything we do. We often become slaves to the corporeal, its pleasures and its disappointments. My camera captures the distortions that we place upon really looking at ourselves – can we ever truthfully see our selves? It also makes vivid our corporeal natures – we shit and spit, we bruise and tear, and some of us, quite a few, in fact, menstruate. As far as the body goes, my goal has always been to describe a real body – not one measured by the cover of Cosmopolitan – and I found that only my body would suffice – because to be honest, one first needs to be vulnerable.
The project has been realized as an installation of original Polaroids and as Volatile Bodies, selections from the project that emphasize body issues. After its completion the project was made into a movie, 15 years in 15 minutes, an excerpt of which may be seen on my website.

www.suzanneszucs.com

movie of the project "15 years in 15 minutes"

Catalina Uribe Percy (96)

They remain an unhappily married couple and next to her,

dad has another woman he has a child with.

Most of the time he lives with that other woman.

I live in three different places and none of them is my home.

And even if I have everything I ever wanted, I'm still filled with empty gaps ...

-Images from the project 'Patterns'-

Catalina writes:

Patterns is a project in which I have been working on for about three years, it is a series of three illustrated books that narrate family stories based on both sociological and anthropological investigations and personal experiences. They all basically comment on the dynamics of the coastal-Colombian family and how the patterns that I follow and the men I normally like are a product of my grandmother’s and subsequently my mother’s history of having absent father figures and how this absence resulted in them choosing life partners that make emotionally unavailable husbands who go on to become absent fathers themselves. These three book take the form of a babushka doll (one book goes into the other) to portray the concept of familiarity and motherhood. My grandmother carried my mother, and my mother carried me.

Catalina Uribe Percy

Catalina Uribe Percy on Flickr

Claire Jackson (95)

Claire adds:

The two illustrations were created during a period where i felt overwhelmed with worry about my mum who had cancer, my thoughts seemed to be constantly consumed by the cancer even though i was not the one who was ill. These images represent the amorphous almost parasitic nature of cancer on my mind and how it almost took over and occupied my every thought. The first is entitled 'overwhelming thoughts of cancer' and the second is titled 'cancer on my mind', the third image is a biomorphic abstract sculpture called bio poddlings, created from a smart plastic known as polycaprolactone or polymorph. This sculpture was created at the same time that I knew my mum was fighting cancer. I took it upon my self to research the microscopic images of cancer and other invasive viruses that take over the human body, etc and as well as microscopic images of the human body itself to create my abstract sculptures.

www.artistclairejackson.com

Eva Molenaar (94)

Eva writes:

I am researching my womanhood and my place as a women in this society. I have always worked with the human body and am focusing lately on women in particular. I was focusing on women from the FLDS (Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) and the Amish. I found myself attracted to the women, and the old way of living for women, and was wondering if this was something I wanted for myself? That choice would be frowned upon from within my social background and by my peers. I am still working with this project, I haven't found the answer yet, I am curious how other people handle growing up as modern independent women.

Eva Molenaar

Katie Cassolino (93)

Katie writes:

My work is a collection of drawings and paintings on paper narrating body as a subject and repeated theme. The drawings suggest exaggerated flowers and growing figures in surreal landscapes. The work consists of intuitive line drawings that create clusters of organic fragments. As physical beings we are constantly evolving in ways that are both inexplicable and understood. Much like the mysteries of our complicated biochemical make up, these drawings explore surreal biomorphic forms. Through ambiguous lighting and patterns that suggest growth, these drawings serve a result of my moving meditation. As an installation they create a world that lets us transcend to the place, which we are closely connected and mysteriously unaware, our bodies. This work is about our world, our bodies, and the possibilities for growth. Life can be found in the whimsical spirit of objects and nature. These works are a personal interpretation of that.

Currently I have been working on a body of works on paper creating images of biomorphic surreal landscapes. In my last exhibition I have installed a grouping of 62 drawings from the last three years all created around the time of my diagnosis as a diabetic. Some created intuitively through premonition and others powered by angst of an illness inside I was aware of.

Cassolino.com

Ellen Wetmore (92)

-Checking for Doneness-

-Carried Away-

-Nursing with Eels-

-Melt-

The sculptures are all 2 feet tall, except Melt, which is 15ft long..

All executed in the last 2 years.

Ellen writes:

"The Joys of Motherhood" is a set of sculptures and images exploring the maternal body and experience in a surreal way. Pregnancy and motherhood involve a bizarre physical transformation. Reports Wetmore:

“I have experienced extreme physical deformity, profound emotional delirium, intense hunger, and fatigue. This is normal, even celebrated, but not necessarily enjoyable. I am an ambivalent mommy actor and work out some common anxieties through a variety of media.”

On view, a new series of figurative works exploring now familiar themes in Wetmore’s exploration of the fecund female body. The most ambitious of these is "Melt", a monumental reclining female figure with a dissolving midsection that formally recalls the work of British sculptor Henry Moore. Wetmore’s interpretation of this classic pose is sharpened with gross narrative and anatomical details. The model embodies the failure of female fecundity; she passively contemplates the goop into which her body has dissolved. She is covered in a slippery, self-lubricating graphite, as though dipped in crude oil, both lovely and toxic. Other sculptures include "Carried Away" in which the pregnant belly swells and lifts off from earth, stealing away its owner; "Checking for Doneness" in which an impatient, expectant mother opens her stomach early to see how it's going; and "Nursing with Eels", a reflection on the physical demands of infant nursing.

ellenwetmore.iwarp.com

Sibyll Kalff (91)

-black rose tattoo-

-my myoms 1-

-my myoms 2-

Blue Haiku
by Mike Marino

Charlie Parker played the blues, Janis Joplin sang the
blues, with rhythm, so blue blues, jeans are blue, eyes
are blue and skies are blue. Some name their dogs ol'
Blu, and Sinatra was old eyes of blue. Seas are blue,
moods are blue, berries are blue, spring however, is
new, not blue. Hues are blue and the news is blue,
even chimney flues can be blue. Food is blue, at
times, if not red, and sad is blue. Few are blue, I am
blue, you are blue, BLUE IS!

Kerouac wrote the blues, road blues, highway blues,
and highway booze. Keseys cuckoo's nest flew, one was
blue and flew over the blue to the other side, green.
Haikus are blue, 17 sylable blues, or 17 sibyll blues,
a beautiful hue, her blue.

World War Two was blue, all war is blue. Whales are
blue, some, and art can be blue and paint can be blue.
Life and death are blue, and shirts are blue. Pirate
crews are blue on oceans blue. Flags are blue and
police are blue, cruel blue. Revolution is blue, Che
blue, Ho Chi Minh blue, Berlin Wall red then blue,
Fidel blue, Chicago Seven blue, Chechoslovakia blue,
Hungary blue, Gdansk blue, Tianamen Square blue, Lenin
blue, Lennon blue, Marx, Karl and Groucho blue, Bessie
Smith the Queen blue, Robert Johnson the King blue,
jazz is blue, fusion is blue, hearts are blue, true is
blue...
Blue Is.....

sibyllkalff.com

Martina Korošec (90)

Home-made 1/5

Forest

Martina writes:

Different emotional states and settings in surroundings influence on my body movements. Body movements change when I am exploring familiar indoor environment, such as rooms in a home in comparison to outdoor environment – forest.

What I do is illusion which enables me to release something that I cannot keep for myself only.

martinakorosec.com

Martina Korošec's Photoblog

Cathy Nolan Vincevic (89)

-Womb-

Acrylic, oil pastel, pencil, black and colored...on cardboard.

-A Book About Death, Chapter 2: My Womb-

Cathy writes:

womb
I watch the graceful swirl of her being
tucked so inside
(the body fits its parts so neatly)
arms arched holding gentle flare
of egg
You drove me so, you quickened
you twitched with my ecstasy
ecstasy not complete without you
blood and bone and blood
you were my child
and your instincts
basic
driven
became woe
a promise unfilled
a space left empty

Cathy Nolan Vincevic

Gabriella Mirollo (88)

-self-portrait from the series 'Fade to White'-

Gabriella writes:

I am a poet and photographer originally from NYC and now living in Somerville MA. Leaving behind my preferred position on the “safe” side of the camera, I recently began a series of self-portraits called Fade to White in which for the first time I am literally facing the enemy: an autoimmune disorder called vitiligo that for the past 25 years has caused irregular and unsightly depigmentation of my skin on various parts of my body, but is most extensive on the one place I can’t conceal from the world: my face. Vitiligo is the reason what few self-portraits I have done up until now have been with a camera in front of my face, in shadow, from behind or at a distance. It is also the reason I began reclaiming my skin ten years ago by getting tattoos, and really giving the world something unusual to look at, on my terms! While my own journey from shame to pride is for the most part complete, I hope in continuing this series to further explore and challenge standards of beauty, mine included, and let fellow sufferers of vitiligo know that it’s okay to show their faces.

Gabriella Mirollo

Joanne Beaule Ruggles (87)

-Free Fall-

-Sleepless in San Luis-

-The Dilemma-

Joanne writes:

Throughout my career my goal has been to communicate the human condition through my artwork - whether I am painting or drawing. Struggling to capture the feel rather than the look of my subject(s), to capture the soul rather than the surface - my art functions as a mirror that reflects our humanity - my humanity. I want that reflection to be large, revealing, passionate, and even raw. Pleasantly skillful work does not interest me, not asking enough from the viewer or exposing enough of the creator. I prefer work that records an honest struggle - an intense and often an awkward search. Along with traditional artist's tools, I employ a wide range of unorthodox implements including twigs, primitive dowel pens, trowels, and abrasive materials in order to create the expressive marks needed to carry the emotional charge I desire within a certain work. My artwork is often initiated by building a chaotic field of colorful paint, abstract ink mark, and collaged shape because I enjoy making order out of apparent disorder. Entering this uncharted territory - full of risk, full of potential - provides me the exhilarating creative environment that I seem to require at this point. I find this process has metaphoric relationship to life itself - we get the life that is delivered to us. We don't earn it any more than we deserve it. We just try to make sense of what comes our way, to do the best we can. This IS the human condition - my condition. I have walked with cancer. I am a survivor. I am finding my way.

Joanne Beaule Ruggles

Francien Krieg (86)

-marked-

-double bed-

-laying body-

Francien writes in her artist statement:

In the studio of Francien Krieg a glass is displayed with bird skulls and a small fetus in a jar. It is noticeable that transience of nature intrigues her. In the work of Krieg the theme of transience concentrates on the naked body of elderly women. Krieg paints the naked woman unpolished and realistic, as a pure human being. The beauty of imperfection becomes clear in her raw, poetic art and has the capacity to touch the observer. Krieg always painted human beings. At first she was intrigued by the form of the human body, but gradually her fascination with the texture and the colors of the human skin increased which is expressed in her realistic style. She tried once to show the inner side of human beings, but that did not appeal her.

'I think the inside is bloody and nasty, while the outside is interesting for me. The wrinkles and varicose veins of the elderly are to most people an illustration of imperfection, but to me they depict beauty. According to me, a smooth, polished skin is less interesting then an aged skin. Painting the unpolished, aged skin is a way to express the inside.'

The fascination for the human body started when she became aware of the strangeness of her own body when she took a shower. She took a good look at herself and thought 'what a strange object is this!'. This experience stimulated her to paint her own body.

'Your own body is familiar and strange at the same time. For me it is bizarre that on one hand I feel comfortable in my body, while on the other hand I have no awareness of what is going on inside. Even medical science is unable to understand the inside of the human body completely.'

Another fascination of Krieg is the way females are portrayed in the media. She is annoyed at the way the media create an idealized picture of women. As a counterpart of this idealization she aims to show natural and unpolished women. One of the purposes of Krieg is to stimulate critical questioning of the definition of beauty instead of a groundless acceptance of an imposed definition of beauty. Personality characteristics as openness and honesty also contribute to outward beauty.

(translated from a text from Hanneke Wetzer)

Francien Krieg