On my easel… New steampunk nude!
“We’ve only just begun…” The placement for this figure was an enormous challenge as there are large steampunk wings coming in later. I have less than a month to finish this piece so it’s going to be a hard slog to get it all done to the quality I want!
There are times I wish I could save it as it is. I really like the way it looks now, but I can’t wait to see it finished either! Ah well, that’s what photographs are for!
The finished work will be appearing in a very cool steampunk show during Loréal fashion week so stay tuned!
What is it about a nude that’s offensive?
At my local shopping center there is a massage place. The poster in the window has a nude woman’s back and the prices extending down her spine. It’s a cute concept until you get to the lower region.
This woman has buttocks, but no dividing line.
You can see where the heal tool was used, and you know that even with some shapes there is no way that this woman was born without a buttcrack.
In Japan, anime with nude breasts can be shown on any channel at anytime- providing the nipples are removed.
In many countries the tiniest bikini (an inch covering the butt and nipples) is enough to satisfy propriety while nudity or g-strings aren’t.
The details, it seems, must be covered or removed.
This makes me wonder. Is it the breast that’s “offensive” or is it the nipple? Are buttocks a problem or just the crack? Why are they offensive? Is it because the are the functional part of that zone? Or because they are the defining characteristics of those dodgy areas? If nipples are the offender then why are men’s acceptable?
Consider this an open forum, I want to hear your thoughts on these questions!
Render in progress
Well, that was a nice break! I’ve had a chance to relax and a chance to be sick as well. Yay. but now it’s time to get back to work. This year I want to try writing shorter posts and see how that goes. The plan is to actually publish more. We shall see!
A lot of my Daz time of late has been more technical in nature, a lot of tweaking and experimentation. I have some new toys that I have been practicing with! This is the result of some experimentation and I love the eerie light quality! I still want to tweak the head a little, but it’s coming along really well, I look forward to painting it up.
Resolutions and opportunities
I’ve been giving a lot of thought to new years resolutions, why we create them and what they do to us. Last year I had several blog posts worth. Did I achieve them all? No, sometimes because the scope was too huge, and sometimes because as the year went on they lost relevance or new things came up that changed the game.
This year I am trying a completely different tack. I am shunning my old standby the list and going with a single new years resolution:
Identify opportunities and seize them
Last year I started to see how powerful this could be. I took a massive step forward in my career mindset just by being open to new opportunities. I liked it so much I want to dedicate my year to this single premise. And the best thing is that this doesn’t just refer to work, everything is an opportunity waiting to be seized.
What opportunities will you seize in 2012?
2011 in review
2011 was a massive mix of highs and lows for me. I don’t want to dwell on the lows, 2012 is about moving forward and building on my successes of the past year. I hope, wherever you are, that you will take a moment to farewell the bad points of 2011 and happily remember the good. I hope no matter what 2011 was like for you, 2012 will be better! I am proud of the accomplishments I made this year, and the people I met. The milestones I saw others reach and the achievements of everyone around me. This is a list of the things I am proudest about from 2011.
- I painted and painted and painted some more, my skills were increased and I know that I made some of my best work this year.
- my studio is a sanctuary. It is incomplete, but it’s going well and is a constant source of joy.
- I participated in lots of exhibitions. I unleashed my inner geek.
- I saw opportunities and I found shows in unlikely locations.
- two students interviewed me for their assignments on artists and inspirational art
- I did a public interview with Phantomimic
- I was invited to speak on a panel in Sydney and overcame my fear of public speaking to speak about a subject very close to my heart. I am intensely proud of this
- I saw Bill Henson speak twice, I asked him a question in front of thousands of people and cameras
- I filled my life with art and watched how that influenced my toddler to start creating.
- I made contacts with some really lovely people.
- I became more confident in talking to others and marketing face to face
- I made good sales even in this economy. Not as good as some years but still enough to be proud of.
- my affiliate marketing started paying real dividends, rather than just supporting my online costs. it provided a steady stream of income to supplement my art income.
- I watched a wonderful artist recover and survive a terrible beating with the health stick and come back fighting and ready to take his art career to the next level.
- I learned to ask for what I want, and make more of every opportunity
- I was one of 32 artists selected to be a finalist in the Art Revolution Taipei international art competition. Over 2500 artists entered!
- I got a new imac, it’s awesome. it picked up my rendering times no end.
- I started physics based rendering, I’m still really new at it.
- I watched Erica start to walk, and talk more, watched her love of books and drawing grow and watched her develop in so many ways. I’m very lucky to work from home so I can still share in these special moments!
- I overcame my fear of cameras a bit and started posing again. I intend to conquer my fear more and get some new profile pictures soon!
- I completed my 505050 project, despite paper shortages and uploading problems. Not all the works are up yet but I completed them in time. this is a pretty big effort!
- I redid my website, new back end, new design and all new traffic! it looks pretty sweet. I have more to do but I’m very happy with how it is going.
- People told me I was their hero. You can’t get cooler than that!
7 things my toddler has taught me about art
One of the joys of being a parent is watching your child grow and discover new things. This often means you get the delight of rediscovering the simple pleasures in life. Erica is an arty little toddler, she has taken to drawing and painting like a duck to water. Ever since her eyes developed she has loved looking at art, tilting her head to the side to consider works for quite a long time. She loves going all over the house looking at my paintings and I really value her opinion! When a new one is introduced she tells me all about it. One of her first words was “draw” and we hear it many times a day. She draws with a ferocity and concentration. She grips the crayon or pencil and goes for her life! Here are some of the tips I have picked up on art appreciation from my curios toddler.
Friday Nude Quotes
The difference of a painting in the nude becoming lewd
Is in the shadows
Arthur Tugman
Friday Nude Quotes
Scott only asked me to do the movie because he couldn’t get anyone else. He asked everyone ? Mel Brooks, Marty Landau, Carl Reiner. They were all afraid of the nude scene.
Friday Nude Quotes
Even in Orange County, reference to nude figure drawing is not exactly stimulating in a sexual manner.
Jonathan Lovett
Seven – 8×8 Oils on Canvas
Seven 8×8 Oils on Canvas
$150
Currently at ArtBoy Gallery
I love the Borg. I think they are one of the best enemies introduced by Star Trek. they are so..human. they appropriate from everywhere to add to their perfection. they take our distinctiveness and add it to their own. they augment and corrupt rather than create, but everything they do serves to create more drones operating on the hive mind. The borg are captives, taken and converted. their memories shared amongst every other borg and their identity lost. their original species is lost. all that remains is the drone.
In Voyager they introduced Seven of Nine and converted her back. it was a long, slow process involving the stripping away of her borg components and extricating her from the hive mind. in doing so, they turned her from one of the most interesting borg, a princess in training to be a queen, a real tough bitch, into a robotic pin-up. there is fan art everywhere for Seven of Nine. she became a fanboi fantasy and one of the sexiest characters to come out of Star Trek. Everyone paints her as she is better known, corsetted with the small, cute, borg accessories. I wanted to show the original Seven of Nine. I painted her at the cusp of becoming human, as she works with Voyager. I wanted to remove the sexiness and show the indecision, the corruption, the raw human underneath. I think many fan art pictures of her focus on the sexy and in showing her as a human remove her personality. I wished to show her as a borg and show her humanity in that.
Come see this painting and other Sci-Fi themed works this Friday at ArtBoy Gallery! FanBoy vs ArtBoy: Science Fiction Opens Friday night 6-8 and runs through to the 4th of December. I will be at the opening and I’d love to see you there!
Friday Nude Quotes
Her husband, he’s German you know. When her husband came to me, I said, ‘John, you don’t mind me painting your wife.’ And he said, ‘No, that’s fine, just don’t paint her nude.
Friday Nude Quotes
As much as things change, they stay the same. There is still controversy about, maybe even more than before, not just nudity — a nude statue.
Inspiration, shiny syndrome and the search for a penseive
Many artists say that to be a professional you need to rid yourself of the notion of inspiration. that you have to create all the time regardless of feeling inspired or motivated or artistic. That you should always create. And I agree, to a certain extent, we should always create, it is part of what makes us artists, and business people. The more you create, the more you want to create. The easier art comes. The better your technique, the better you can produce what you see in your mind’s eye. The more you practice the better you get. It’s that way with everything, writing, music, stock trading, the more you do it, the better you get, the more you enjoy it and the more people respond. But, I also believe that if you are open to inspiration, if you are always on the lookout, then inspiration can strike anywhere, anytime. My problem is that I have too much inspiration, so I am always excited about what I am working on… All 5 or 10 projects! I get overwhelmed by having too much that excites and interests me. And when that happens I go into overload mode and can’t create enough. That becomes a self feeding loop. But if I put a project on the back burner, then it is no longer shiny when I go to pick it up and the way has been blocked by another bunch of shinys.
Shiny Syndrome is a terrible curse to bear at times, but it is also wonderful for constantly finding new sources of inspiration. at any given time, in my mind, I will be working on 2 blog series, 3 blog posts, 2 new blog ideas, a newsletter (that I probably won’t send), a bunch of tweets, 2 exhibition concepts, 3 full sized paintings, 2 renders, 5 sketches and about 10 unformed concepts. And a partridge in a pear tree. And that’s just work stuff. So sometimes my brain wants to explode!
Do you remember the pensieve in the Harry Potter books? I think most artists would give an ear for something like that!
When I get overwhelmed I tend to hide away. this doesn’t do me, or my art, any favors. I need to learn to mitigate my Shiny Syndrome and put it to work for me, instead of against me.
What do you do to sort out all the ideas in your head? Do you have a pensieve system?
Warp – 13x19cm Watercolor on Paper
Warp I
19×13
Watercolor and Pencil on Cold Pressed paper
It’s been a challenge creating and uploading these small artworks, but a real pleasure as well. the color and delightful shapes of the human form just continue to thrill me. this one is available on my website, along with all the others at http://www.jennierosenbaum.com and they’re only $50 each!
Profound – 19×13 cm Watercolor and Pencil on Cold Pressed paper
Profound
19×13 cm Watercolor and Pencil on Cold Pressed paper
Every Day for 50 days I will be posting a watercolor for $50. stay tuned to my 50/50/50 project on my website, on my Facebook page, or on twitter!
Look, even I paint men from time to time! this project is really helping me expand my horizons in terms of models, and in terms of seeing. I’m exploring color, shape, halftomes, lines and more but mostly I’m just explaoring the joy of the human figure. check out all my works to date on my website!
Looking for small, unique gifts? these watercolor nudes will brighten up your holidays! buy them as a present for yourself or for someone special. they are ideal for slipping into a card or framing in a set or on their own. they work beautifully in small spaces. these works are colorful, bright and unique. show your individual flair this holidays and give the gift of original art.
Crouch III watercolors and pencil on paper
19×13 cm Watercolor and Pencil on Cold Pressed paper
On my website I am publishing a new watercolor every day for 50 days. These watercolors make perfect Christmas presents and are small and bright unique original and affordable artworks! Each one is 13×19 cm and is painted on cold pressed paper. Each is signed by me and ready to frame!
I am really enjoying this challenge as I go forward, it’s a wonderful way to beat back my winter blues and stave off the spring lethargy. I am also challenging myself by painting different types of nudes and stepping outside of my comfort zone in terms of color, lighting, angle and so on. Revisiting different poses several times, I can really focus on the anatomy and the minutae of light and shadow and form. This is a technical excercise in seeing as well as a joy to explore!
Did I mention that each one is only $50? That’s 50 works, 50 days for $50 each! You can see and buy them all on my website, and watch Facebook, or twitter for more 
I will also, of course, be publishing a couple here.
Friday nude quotes
Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
Steve Jobs in his Stanford Graduation Speech
Written on my iPad. Thankyou Steve, you will be missed.
Too rude? Speech part 3: nude models and artistic merit.
Part one and part two have already been published. This is the third and final part of my 10 minute speech for Sydney University’s Tuesday Talks program. Frequent readers may recognize some passages here, I couldn’t improve on them!
When I initially wrote about the Bill Henson scandal a number of people told me that I would feel differently once I was a parent. As if that would change who I am. I am proud to say that i am now the mother of a little girl and my views have not changed. I believe, as I did then, that if she were approached by an artist to be a model I would support her. That isn’t to say that I wouldn’t do my due diligence on the artist to ensure they were on the level, and I would be there with her. But the decision is not mine, it would be hers.
One thing that struck me about the model known as N, the adolescent in the image seen on the invitations that caused much of the furor, is that when interviewed she discussed all the considerations she made before modeling. She considered how she felt about her body, how she may feel about school mates seeing her in the nude and how she might feel about it years later.
The most important thing to realize is that what you take away from viewing an artwork is not just what the artist puts in, it’s what you bring to it as well.
Your past affects it as much or even more than the artist’s intentions.
Everyone sees art differently which is why it is difficult to judge, and why it should never be stifled.
artistic merit should not become a goto excuse for pornographers, that harms us artists more than anyone – but it must be allowed. we cannot create under a blanket of censorship and we cannot be the artists we need to be without freedom to create. art has the power to challenge our views, to make us think and and to change the world. I believe that the arts are one of the most powerful forces of humanity and should never be denied.
There is a difference, too, between sexual and sensual. There are as many shades of gray as there are stages of undress. Art can be arousing. It should be arousing. It should inspire passion. Not just sexually, but in all things. Arousal and passion are not just the pervue of sexuality, but of life. And art is life
Suspension WIP – 24×30 Oils on Canvas (detail)
Suspension Work in Progress
Oils on Canvas
Filigree and Lace and Cogs oh my. I’m keeping the lace lighter and airier than last time, a contrast from the steel filigree goggles and the heavy cog above it all. This was last weeks work, blocking in the background, glazing details and starting the massive cog undertaking. the figure is almost complete, it’s really about the detailing now. I have yet to use any black, a complete change for me. deeper tones have been blended using umbres and paynes gray or ultramarine. they are creating some very alive warm and cool blacks. I’m paying a great deal of attention to temperature in this piece, even more than I usually do, as it seems that slightly different hues go a long way towards making metal look convincing.
I have a lot of projects coming up at the moment, so while I will be continuing this series (I do love it so!) I will be working on some other things as well.
Too rude? Speech part two – adolescent nudity in art
Part one is here..
These days the nude appears to have become more controversial as the line between nudity and sexuality has been blurred. The prevalence of porn and sexualized images In the media have led to an automatic association between nudity and sex. A belief that nudity is dirty, wrong, and disgraceful. All of this has led to nude art being pushed to the back corner, far from being the classic and honored subject of artists everywhere.
There is no image of vulnerability more powerful than that of a naked child. Take for example the iconic Vietnam Napalm photograph. Would this picture have as much impact if she was an adult? If she was clothed? The image of her running down the street, naked and screaming, is real, it’s powerful and it’s become a symbol for the horrors of war everywhere. This photograph won the Pulitzer and world press photo of the year.
A nude child is the image of vulnerability, of change. It automatically triggers protective instincts. Good art has the power to move us. It inspires emotion.
Would Bill Henson’s works be as emotive if the children were clothed? if they were small breasted adults? His works capture a moment in time. A fragile period in a teen’s life. These works make us empathize with the subject, I have heard abuse sufferers consider them both triggering works and uplifting and encouraging. Other see a coming of age, loss of innocence. fragile, strong. Whatever you see in this work you cannot deny that it has an emotional impact and that is the purpose of art.
The scandal with Brook Shields and the Gary Gross/Richard prince photographs is another good example. Gary Gross took photographs of a pre-teen Brook Shields for a magazine. These works were highly sexualized, with brook painted with oil and makeup. They were exceptionally adult, and in very poor taste. Brook shields did not get a say in modeling for these works, nor how they were used later on. Many years later Richard Prince took a photograph of the original Gary Gross, then changed it. The final work was seedier and turned the original on it’s ear. Where the first seemed to celebrate child pornography, the Prince version used the same image to condemn it. It still uses a sexualized image of an adolescent, but by using that image to make the viewers uncomfortable it made an excellent point about not turning a blind eye to child pornography.
Suspension WIP – 24×30 Oils on Canvas
Suspension 24×30 Oils on Canvas
So I have begun the massive process. the work is further along than this now, but I have been slack in photographing and uploading my WIPs. I’m too busy working to catalogue it all! we have also started putting up a ceiling in my studio. this should help protect against the australian summer, and protect my neighbors against all the singing and swearing that emerges from my studio.
Too rude? Speech part one – my work
As I edited my speech from last week for posting, I realized it was way too long for a single post! This is the first part, about my work. I was introduced beautifully so I only needed to discuss my work itself. Some of these phrases will form part of my new artist statement.
“My artwork explores the nude figure. I find the human body to be a marvel, not just of engineering and design, but also of poetry and emotion. I am endlessly fascinated by what lies beneath, beneath clothes, beneath the layers of pain and beneath the masks we wear.
Nude Art is our history. It is our expression and our drive. It shows our growth as human beings and our evolution emotionally.
I mostly paint women. Strong, elegant and emotional, I capture different aspects of what it is to be a woman. I have been drawn to a difficult arena as censorship grows and fear over the nude body reaches fever pitch.
That is why I have dedicated myself to debunking myths about nude art. I want to show the world the beauty I see in the human body and share my firm belief that nudity is not threatening, it is not always sexual and it is here to stay.”
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