POST #9 :BOSOMS: A Tribute to….

Seven Deadly Sins: Envy  48"x34"

A recent visitor to my studio commented that there appeared to be an awful lot of bosoms in my paintings. I thought about it for a while and decided he was right. I’m not particularly sex obsessed or even overly concerned with body parts, so why so much pulchritude in my work? Maybe it’s because I’m a social satirist and if you live in a society like ours, isn’t bigger always better?

I can’t tell you how many times I have observed a hefty female on the street proudly packed into a stretch outfit at least four sizes too small. They walk (jiggle) with enormous pride, seeming to say: “I sure am something! ” This is especially obvious during summer months when more gets exposed. The period in art history when pendulous body parts were most in vogue was the prehistoric era when female fertility statuettes were composed entirely of exaggerated sexual organs. Just breasts and pudenda. 

The current fashion in the female body appears to be surgically enhanced breasts tacked on to anorexic bodies. Nature doesn’t work that way; slim women are usually slim all over, but in an effort to be more attractive or fashionable they distort the natural beauty of their real bodies. I recently watched someone at the local health club proudly display her newly acquired, perfectly round breasts (think cut-in-half –cantaloupes attached to a chest wall), crowned by her tiny, original nipples. Did the man in her life really think this was an improvement? Shame on him!

Seven Deadly Sins: Pride  68"x44"

The role of a satirist is to point out the foibles of society. There’s a difference between being lewd and making fun of lewdness. If you think my stuff is raunchy, take a look at George Grosz’s drawings of women on the street in 1920s Weimar Germany. Lecherous bastard that he was, Grosz showed them fully dressed but also fully naked under their clothes, the way he assumed men imagine them, In no way do they resemble the serene, nude goddesses of Classical periods. There’s a big difference between nudity and nakedness.

My women are fertility symbols, goddesses of plenty and proud of it. They wouldn’t dream of being surgically altered; they don’t diet, wear padded, push-up bras or elasticized underwear. They let it all hang out!