Thursday, July 13, 2006

Wool Skirt


There is something kind of gracious about this pose. As if she is patting something or somebody on the head. Again, the dress is a riff on 1940s era clothing, with some of my own additions. Many of the templates for these girls may be found in Sears Roebuck catalogues. I appretiate the girls stocky legs and rounded faces. The way I'm handling paint around the faces and in the skirts is a little bit clunky, sometimes multiple layers of Gouache, an opaque Watercolor-type paint (a little explanation for the uninitiated). I like it when such a refined medium gets awkward. I have no interest in accuracy, more deviation from cleanliness for emotional affect. If something optimistic and forward-looking is handled with clunkiness, a touch almost bordering on premature wear and tear or faux nostalgia, then I feel as if I may in fact push against the crispness of the scrapbooking paper support underneath. My husband despises nostalgia in many forms, I'm not sure what I think about it. These drawings are escapist at their very core, but I don't think I can embrace the notion of nostalgia as a moral good either. Something about wishing for my grandmother's problems and fashion sense gives me the willies.

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