Thursday, February 13, 2014

Robin F. Williams

Today, I went to Robin F. Williams' opening at P.P.O.W., "Sons of the Pioneers" and, while I didn't care in particular for the work, there was one piece that I seriously liked and I liked what I read in the press release a lot.
I've been very aware, for a while now, of feminism, the patriarchy and equality and I like it when certain tables get turned in a really clever way.
So here are some excerpts from the press release which are relevant to what I'm talking about:
- "Williams challenges the roles of American masculinity and traditional portraiture by replacing the idyllic female or odalisque, with romanticized scenes of men in various states of idleness."
- "Williams drapes each figure with mixed identities that mask traditional signifiers of purpose and patriarchy in order to construct a new and sympathetic masculine mythology".
- "She adorns each male with ornamental hats and accessories, allowing them to reflect sensibilities not typically associated with the male portrait."

And this was my favorite piece, titled "Hunter".

So, yeah, I went to an opening haha! Do remember my Facebook page, which you should like and share with your friends: Gabriela Handal Arte
And also, my website (yeah, MY website. It's weird, I know) is slowly filling with my work, do not hesitate to have a look: www.gabrielahandal.com
Thank you so much for reading!

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

C7

I started my second semester at the New York Academy of Art two weeks ago and this drawing started in my first Figure Drawing 2 class with Michael Grimaldi.
Michael is very focused in design and composition, so we were supposed to do a lot of little thumbnails and play with cropping and value. As I've done before, i started doing what i'm not supposed to be doing, because i really liked our model's pose and drew a big profile, which is what you see in the picture and then decided to see how accurately i could get a skull in her and it just started looking so cool that i got rid of all the thimbnails and she's become what you see in the picture.
I have the intention of finishing the drawing, similar to "Máscara de Carne", although not anatomically incorrect.
I've titled her "C7", because that's how far down i'm going in the skeleton. I've used HB and 2B pencils over Starthmore 400 series drawing paper, i have a pretty big crush on her.