I was absolutely infuriated. I wanted to say something. I was by far out numbered and frankly out muscled. These were the type of guys I felt would have had no problem beating me senseless and dropping me in a ditch. Probably the same way they would have a woman. Speaking out surely would have caused conflict. I was a guest of a friend and didn’t want to make a scene.

I am non-conflicting, non-violent. A fire grew inside me. I was soo pissed off. What could I do? Speak up among these angry violent men? I sure contemplated it. I sure didn’t laugh.

This is the fire I am faced against every day. Speak out against these types of men? Speak out against these types of comments? I hear them and other derogatory comments towards women far too often. Absolutely speak out. No more. I will not accept this any longer. Don’t say those kinds of things around me, don’t say those kinds of things at all.

We all need to speak out. We need to say these attitudes and types of statements are simply not unacceptable.

I am starting to speak out. My anger against these comments grows, against the acceptance of these attitudes grows. My lack of concern for myself in speaking out against such comments grows. I’ll speak out. I put myself at risk, gladly.

I’ll speak out. Go ahead, beat ME, beat ME “like a wife” so that she may be spared. I’ll gladly be the whipping post for the brunt of your anger. Just don’t touch her. Beat ME PLEASE!!!

I recently watched the documentary “Very Young Girls” its about prostitution and trafficking of young women here in New York City. It was not an easy watch. I was in tears much of the time having to stop it several times.

It is disgusting what happens. 12 year old girls being pimped and turned to prostitution. Beaten bloody when they try to leave. It hits close to home as I have at times seen such young girls working the blocks around my art studio building. I know many of the neighborhoods in the film. I’m sure I commute the subways with parents of children this happens to every day.

As the film points out when we talk about the trafficking of young women we so often refer to the Philippines or Thailand, Africa, somewhere else. It is happening right here in America. It is an growing and overwhelming problem right here in our back yard.

Watch it. Get involved in some way in preventing the trafficking and prostitution of young girls. Send men who assault women to jail. Please, please please. Your child may be at risk. Don’t sit back and let someone else handle this. Get involved. Fight for tougher legislation against pimps and people who perpetuate this business. Speak out against the reasons there is a market for such things.

Its available instantly on Netflix.

Please support:
http://www.gems-girls.org/
http://www.facebook.com/girlsarenotforsale

As some who know me are aware of I read a good amount of books pertaining specifically to woman’s issues and many in that category fall under body image. My work is constantly exploring this issue and trying to challenge and expand our definitions of feminine beauty.

One of my favorite body image books is “Body Outlaws: Rewriting the Rules of Beauty and Body Image (Live Girls)”

Its a series of essays written by women sharing their experiences with body image. The book is absolutely great. It provides a wealthy insight into the broad array of body image issues faced by women in today’s society.

As a figurative artist whose work tries to focus on these issues I went into this with what I had considered a pretty fair knowledge of the subject. I came away from this book with a new and much greater understanding that body image issues which face women today are far greater than just having curves that don’t fit the societal and male stereotypes. This book provides insight into all sorts of issues, such as tattoos, height, hair, being too skinny, ethnic stereotypes, and others.

Its an eye opening exploration of the topic both men and women should read. It brings to light to the many ways in which we as a society need to expand our narrow definitions of beauty and why such existing definitions are harmful.

This book has helped me to expand and grow my work and constantly keep thinking of ways and ideas I can use my work to expand our definitions of beauty. It along with feedback I get from the women in my life and my work has forced me to reflect on how my work can also be used to heal the damaging effects of narrow ideals.

Many thanks to Rebecca Walker and Ophira Edut and the many women whom contributed their personal experiences to this book for opening my eyes to something greater and providing me with some new and fresh perspectives on body image issues!!!

There’s something seriously sadomasochistic about creating a 5 foot wide pastel drawing. Here’s why.

They are very difficult to store.

Some pastel artists will use something called a spray fixative. It applies a clear coating that bonds the pastel chalk particles to the paper, reducing the chances of smudging and “preserves” the drawing. I learned a long time ago this also slightly alters the look of a piece. To some artists the alteration is insignificant, to artists like me there’s it is simply unacceptable. I will not fix a drawing ever at anytime.

This leaves the surface more vulnerable to damage from smudging and other forms of contamination such as dust prior to framing.

Theoretically to store a pastel before framing one could cover it with tissue paper and store it in a flat file drawer system. 2 problems here. First my studio is too small for 6 foot wide flat files, and I honestly am not even sure they make them that big. Second, I use very high end, very expensive pastels these days. I use them because of their incredible vibrancy. The colors are incredibly saturated and beautiful. You have to see them in person to really get a feel for how really, really rich they are. I don’t want anything coming in contact with the pastel, not fixative, not tissue paper, not anything. Ok I’m a little stubborn:) but it matters to me. I put in the time, effort, and money to make these the highest quality pieces I want them to stay at that level.

I have idea’s on how to get them to the framer’s without anything coming in contact with the surface. I can build a recessed cardboard carrier, keep it flat the whole time. Shouldn’t a problem.

Storage until then? Until I can afford to frame them (will get to that problem shortly) I am storing them on the walls of my studio. Problems again. I have high ceilings but a lot of work building up in here. A couple more of these pastels and I’m out of space:( They are also vulnerable to dust but I don’t have too many worries about smudging.

Framing…
So as it has been explained to me due to their size these can not be framed using glass. Ugh. They will need to be framed with plexi-glass. Ok simple right? Nope, more problems. The static electricity from the plexi-glass will over time draw the pastel figments away from the paper and to the glass surface, obviously creating an undesired effect. To offset this effect the drawing will need to be framed in a deep box and spaced back from the glass.

Also…I always liked the double mat look. Due to the large size they will need to be single mat. I can live with that though and I have considered though no mat as they have tape edges that will be peeled away upon framing. A mat may not be necessary.

Anyhow due to all of this framing for just 1 piece like this will cost around $1000. I am ok with that price if its of the highest quality but coming up with that uh I already spent it making the piece lol.

Dust!
And the amount of pastel dust all over my studio is incredible.

So why create artwork that is so difficult to store, costs $1000 to frame, has around $700 in pastels on it, high quality expensive paper, the model, the studio overhead etc. ?(time spent yeah right)

I have to.

So I contemplated not. I contemplated making some more small pencil drawings, work on something else, ink, a smaller pastel maybe. I contemplated it for all of about 2 hours telling myself all of the above and why I shouldn’t, but I could see her, I could see her 5 feet wide and she was powerful, she was beautiful. I never stood a chance, she was getting made and she was getting made at this size!

So I make art that is difficult to store, to frame and even more difficult to sell (I will have to find very high end buyers). Sadomasochism at its finest!

I think though if I can make 12-15 of these and frame them I’ll have a body of work I can approach a serious gallery with. Until then…

Almost finished with the background. Should be able to finish up tonight. Pretty happy with it. Treading lightly and slowly on the face, I’m scared to wreck it :-0

She’s almost 5 feet wide by 3 feet tall. Big and powerful!

There’s been a heat wave here in NYC. I think it got up to 96 today. I am working on this under 2 150 watt lamps (at least I’m not painting, that would mean 3 lamps). They are kicking off some serious heat and with no windows in my studio that means no air conditioning or fresh air. Because of the pastel dust no fan either. Its pretty hot!!! I’m just grateful to be drawing right now. Its one of the best feelings in the world!

Coming along…

I have always felt a image could be capable of conveying a story. Storytelling has been on my mind a bit lately so I guess that’s why I named this one “The Storyteller”. She’s telling a story. What’s the story about? I’ll leave that one up to the viewers!

I like it so I am in the process of making it into a large pastel now. I’ll be locked in my studio for a few days until she’s done. Don’t hate me if I don’t answer your calls until I’m finished with her:)

It’s my first pencil sketch since getting back from the trail. Feels great to be working again!

Its probably no secret that I feel women are something special. My work and my life are dedicated to celebrating the beautiful things they bring to this world. That said it should come as no surprise one of the issues I am most passionate about is putting and end to violence against women. There is nothing that upsets me more than the ways in which violence acts are committed against women around the world.

It is no longer enough for women to tell men to stop these acts. Men must stand up and speak out in defiance of violence against women. Men must tell other men mistreatment of women in any way is not acceptable. Violence against women occurs in may different forms and is not just physical or domestic abuse. It also includes honor killings, trafficking, rape, sexual harassment, emotional abuse and others. Men must speak out against these issues to other men. Men must get involved in bringing an end to these acts of violence.

Since I feel so strongly about this I think this new “Man Up” campaign that recently launched is great. Please take a moment to check out this website:
Man Up Campaign

I know there are lots of places to donate money these days. There has been no shortage of tragedy around the world and things here haven’t been so great here. So if you can not donate money then please get involved in other ways. If you can find some way donate your time to stopping these issues. If time is something you can’t afford right now you can do things as simple as telling your friends derogatory statements about women such as ‘bitch’ and ‘ho’ aren’t acceptable use, do not support companies which use or endorse images that objectify women, spread the word. We can all do something.

Its up to us to make change happen. MAN UP FELLA’s!!!

I am currently seeking models for the following projects:

• Pregnant Models
• Women who have had a mastectomy
• Breast feeding

Full descriptions can be found here

If you are interested or know someone who may be please contact me.
Thanks!
-Chip

Anatomy Sketches

 Any first year art student knows if you want to draw the figure you need to know some anatomy, and if you want to draw the figure well, you need to know anatomy very well. Simply put, when you draw something like a table, what you see is what you get. A box is a box. When you draw the human form what you see on the outside is given its shape by what you do not see underneath on the inside. Hence the need to know anatomy to represent the figure well.

When I was younger I used to sit filling sketch books with sketches of anatomy. I’d fill them tirelessly over and over every chance I had. Waiting for a bus, eating lunch, watching tv. Every chance I got. As I grew older and more interested in things like color, style and other more expressive aspects of art I seem to have fallen out of the practice of doing anatomy sketches.

While I think the style aspects of my art have progressed nicely as I look at my art these days I am somewhat unsatisfied with my technical abilities. I didn’t sit around very long looking for answers on how to remedy this before coming to the obvious conclusion that I need to get back to doing regular anatomy studies. And so it begins…

On a related note. I was thinking how in “The old days” many artists would observe cadaver dissections in order to better understand anatomy. This is something I am currently looking into to see if its even possible for artists to do these days. I may be open to doing that. Def need to check out the Bodies exhibit as well.