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I’ve written a bit on this blog about the effects of male gaze. The male gaze is the idea that society inherently sees things from a male perspective, a concept that is perpetuated by the lack of other perspectives represented in world-wide media. My work deals mostly with mass spread of male gaze in fine art and its effects on the identity of the female artist. However, the male gaze - which is prevalent in ALL types of media ( in fact women holdon 3%  of clout positions on the boards of major television conglomerates) - has significantly broader effects on the female identity as whole.

“Annette Kuhn, long-standing film professor and editor of Screen, discusses how women’s representations in the media are not just economically and politically oppressed, but they are also symbolically oppressed”(Dutt 2014). When any group is not represented in the media - which is the lense through which we consume the majority of our information about ourselves and our culture - they have to wonder what is their part in this culture? This lack of representation in the media is symbolically rejecting their existence in our culture and has thus been coined “symbolic annihilation.” If the female perspective is not presented to us by our main source of information, many are left without an example of female identity outside of male influence with which to identify. Instead, what female viewers are left to identify with is the female identity as-seen-by-men and women are, therefore, not only being seen as objects, but are learning to see themselves as objects. (Siebel Newsom 2011)

While female protagonists accounted for an underwhelming 29% of 2016’s top 100 films (this is actually a 7% increase from the previous year), this does not mean that 29% of this year’s top 100 films were made from the female perspective. “We are seeing a new incarnation of this [type of film] where women appear to be empowered, they are carrying the story, they’re the action hero, but again, when you peel back a layer or two, you discover that it’s not really about their agency; I call this archetype the ‘fighting fucktoy’ because even though she is doing these things supposedly on her own terms, she is very much objectified and exists for the male viewer,” Dr. Caroline Heldman, professor of political science at Occidental College explains how movies like Catwoman and Elektra are actually, in many ways, anti-empowerment, regardless of the face that they star women. (Guardian 2017) (Siebel Newsom 2011)

Though, the objectification of women is rampant in mainstream media, surely, women must find some solace in genres of media that are created specifically for the female target audience, right? These must adhere to the “female gaze.” It would be nice if this were the case, however, box-office, women-aimed hits adhere significantly more to the male gaze than we’d like to think and the legitimacy of the female lead is actually even further undermined by the existence of the subcategory “chick flicks.” It is, sadly, safe to say that, at least as far as mainstream media is concerned, an alternative gaze does not exist (as Mulvey argues, when male gaze is the vantage point of the camera, everyone will see through male gaze). Within subcategories of male gaze dominated media, the viewer may, indeed, find a female character who is represented as multidimensional. However, even in a film that is made with the specific intention of capturing the female audience, when deconstructed, such films are, again, not really about these women at all. (Mulvey 1975)

“Mainstream movies are generally stories of men’s lives which revolve around men, and then we have this subgenre called “chick flicks,” that are stories of women’s lives, which, when you look at them a little more closely, you realize generally revolve around men’s lives too. They revolve around trying to get a man, trying to get love, get married, get pregnant.” (Heldman 2011) To compound this, while these women are often portrayed as multi-dimensional, “stereotypically female” personality traits are often exaggerated to make these women seem overly emotional, often to a point where the character may even be unstable. “By painting women as more emotional than men, we perpetuate the stereotype that women are emotional. Therefore, they’re irrational. Therefore they cannot handle crisis. Therefore, they cannot be in leadership roles.” Dr. Erika Falk’s assessment of the social impact of this never ending portrayal of women is certainly not baseless. In 2013, female politicians were more than twice as likely to be described with emotionally charged descriptors than their male counterparts. While news sources wrote of female senators “complaining” of things, men were more likely to just “state” them. (Siebel Newsom 2011)

The average american consumes 10 hours and 47 minutes of media a day, making it by far the largest source of information consumption for americans of all ages. It is crucial to understand the role that minorities (particularly women as it relates to my work) play in the media game - ie their involvement in the creation of media and their ability to decide what is distributed where, when, and how. The media plays an increasingly large role in the socialization of our children and has become one of the main tools used by youth to understand our culture. How women are portrayed by any type of media simply DOES effect the way women are perceived in this culture.

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I wanted to talk a little bit today about my inspiration. Because of the nature of my work, the majority of artists that I admire are conceptual artists. I consider the Guerilla Girls to be a favorite among contemporary artists. They often use only words and don’t necessarily create works that many would consider to be art at all. However, they deal heavily with graphic design and, beyond that, the art is in the content. There is so much artistic value in what they are saying that each individual piece they create has sparked more dialogue in my life than any other piece of traditional artwork ever has. I also take inspiration from the way in which many of these artists are brash and bold in the presentation of their ideas. These are not necessarily words that I would use to describe myself but I aim to be able to share an opinion on a subject that may be difficult to talk about in a way that is difficult to ignore. Though, I can certainly be loud and open among friends, it is often difficult for me to relay important messages to or to express myself to strangers. However, creating artwork that that evokes discussion requires me to express myself to strangers. So, on some level, I am inspired to create artwork that forces me to practice skills that help me grow as a human being in general. In the end, I am inspired by work that soaks a dialogue and I push myself every to be the kind of artist that can do that as well.

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I don't exist for you. I am not an object, I am not a spectacle.

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The nearly finished piece

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I have fielded many questions on this subject, so today I wanted to talk a little bit about why, out of all the horrible things being glorified in this Botticelli painting, I chose to focus on the three graces. “Surely,” you must be thinking, “the rape of Chloris is worse(!) and there must be a more socially relevant point to be made in the wake of this "heroic rape” imagery.“ Here is my response: That’s true. The rape of Chloris is worse. it’s a disturbing tale of a woman who is made happier by her rape. And it’s also true that contemporary women still live in a society that supports rape culture, both openly and indirectly. Contemporary women deal with victim shaming and live under the oppression of being responsible for their own rape. BUT, in spite of all of this, and even though forced marriage to rapists is CERTAINLY something that is still happening in conservative countries across the globe, I hardly believe that anyone within my target audience (which would be contemporary USA) would condone rape culture to the extreme we see in Flora’s myth. Thus, I feel that sending my audience the message "the rape of Chloris was wrong” would only result in a resounding “Obviously…”

Not the result I’m looking for. I don’t want to send a message to the viewer that is obvious, or that already fits inside their worldview.

The depiction of myself as the three graces makes a significantly broader statement and is the epitome of the theme of this series. It is less about one particular struggle that women face (like rape culture) and more about the idea of being stuck in gender roles in the first place. I had a strong and immediate connection with the idea of these women dancing – to me it is like they are doing the “dance of womanhood.” The graces themselves represent the characteristics of ideal womanhood and the figures’ positions, demeanor, nudity, and gazes all result in them becoming objects in this painting that have no role other than to be viewed. To date, I have found no depiction of the three graces in which they are engaging with anything in their environment other than each other. They are there, in all cases, to be a spectacle for the viewer. I believe the graces represent struggles that plague contemporary women on a daily basis: objectification, male gaze, conforming to the role that a woman is supposed to play (to conform or not to conform, that is always the question).

I hope that creating a piece that represents feeling trapped inside this “dance of womanhood” might spark a more interested reaction from my audience. Maybe a man will find more insight, maybe a woman will murmur a “yeah.. me too..” and know she’s not alone. But in the end, I think that anyone of any gender can identify with feeling trapped inside a social role. As such, hopefully this piece is relatable to everyone.

I intend to address more specific obstacles that women face, such as rape culture, in my later pieces.

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Beginning stages of recreating La Primavera by Botticelli with my own figure dancing as the graces. I am working with charcoal on Bristol. The background will be painted to look like the environment of the original. I wanted to create the figures with a medium other than paint so they would look shoved into this environment and sort of out of place (which is exactly how I feel when society asks me to do this crazy “dance of womanhood”)

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The goddess [Flora] replied to my questions, as she talks, her lips breathe spring roses : ‘I was Chloris, whom am now called Flora. Latin speech corrupted a Greek letter of my name. I was Chloris, Nympha of the happy fields [Elysium], the homes of the blessed (you hear) in earlier times. To describe my beauty would mar my modesty : it found my mother a son-in law god. It was spring, I wandered; Zephyrus (the West Wind) saw me, I left. He pursues, I run : he was the stronger; and Boreas gave his brother full rights of rape by robbing Erechtheus' house of its prize [Oreithyia]. But he makes good the rape by naming me his bride, and I have no complaints about my marriage. ‘I enjoy perpetual spring : the year always shines, trees are leafing, the soild always fodders. I have a fruitful garden in my dowered fields, fanned by breezes, fed by limpid fountains. My husband filled it with well-bred flowers, saying : "Have jurisdiction of the flower, goddess." I often wanted to number the colours displayed, but could not : their abundance defied measure. As soon as the dewy frost is cast from the leaves and sunbeams warm the dappled blossom, the Horae (Seasons) assemble, hitch up their coloured dresses and collect these gifts of mine in light tubs. Suddenly the Charites (Graces) burst in, and weave chaplets and crowns to entwine the hair of gods. I first scattered new seed across countless nations; earth was formerly a single colour. I first made a flower from Therapnean blood [Hyacinthus the larkspur flower], and its petal still inscribes the lament. You, too, narcissus, have a name in tended gardens, unhappy in your undivided self. Why mention Crocus, Attis or Cinyras' son, from whose wounds I made a tribute soar?

Ovid, Fasti 5. 193 ff (trans.Boyle) (Roman poetry C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.)

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As I stated in my previous blog post, my artwork often centers around social and political injustices. This time around, I chose a subject that I’ve found painfully distressing since I took my first art history course with Professor Heather Sincavage; the role of women in art.

When I began my studies as an art student, I had a very stereotypical grasp on art history. My knowledge of female artists rested solely on the shoulders of Georgia O'Keefe and I saw no problem with that. By the end of my first year, I’d taken art history II - Renaissance to Modern and an upper level Renaissance art history (during both of which we were introduced to one, single female artist) and could rattle off the dates and names of created works by Michelangelo in my sleep.

The day that my eyes were finally opened was the day that I stepped into Prof. Sincavage’s Women in Art class.

In this class I learned about the female impact on the world of art and, just as importantly, how the world of art impacted women. I learned names and stories of artists who lived in open rebellion against the misogyny under which they lived, many of whom were popular in their lifetimes but were written out of history by mid 20th century art historians for bizarre reasons, many of which are inapplicable to male artists. However, the event that started me down this path was the day that I learned this painting by Botticelli, was not actually about spring:

La Primavera - Botticelli

This painting was in fact an instruction manual on how to be a good wife commissioned for a young newly wed during the Renaissance. Here is this painting deconstructed:

On the far right we can see a depiction of the rape of Chloris which is tale from Roman mythology. Chloris is a young woman who is raped by Zephyrus, the god of the west wind. While Chloris is very upset by her rape, two things happen to sooth the poor woman: 1) She becomes pregnant and can finally feel the peace of motherhood; her rightful place as a woman, and 2) Zephyrus “rights the wrong of her rape” by accepting to marry her. After these two events Chloris is no longer the mortified rape victim but has transitioned into her kind-of-alter-ego Flora who is ultimately happy and content playing the role she knows she was meant for: a pregnant wife.

To Flora’s left we see Venus, the goddess of fertility - her presence in the piece is self explanatory.

To Venus’ left we see the three graces. Though there are many deities, the three graces are most often depictions of Aglaea, Euphrosyne, and Thalia who represent the “graces of womanhood.” (different sources site the different graces as representing any of the following: charm, beauty, nature, human creativity, and fertility). These three woman are nearly always depicted engaging in some type of folk dance, holding hands in a circle.

To the left of the graces, we are shown, in contrast with these feminine roles, the ideal man.

But no worries, the misogyny crashing down from all four corners of this painting is not what’ s important. What’s important is it’s pretty!

It should be.

It’s about Spring, after all.

What are we learning in History classes?

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Artist Statement:

Political and social constructs define the way we live our lives. Prevalent inequalities or injustices within these constructs inform and inspire the majority of my work --  particularly as they pertain to the world of art. It is estimated that in 2015 less than 5% of artists featured in world-wide, top-ranked museums were female, however, women (as viewed by men) continue to be a core subject of this male dominated industry -- often resulting in anywhere from subtle to extremely brash objectification of women. We, as a society, are still very used to the idea of the white male artists (ie Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Monet, Van Gough) and have not yet woken up from our complacency about the resulting depiction of women as subject/object -- not artist. This is further promoted by the fact that, in many cases, the average person has lost the ability to analyze the symbolism within a piece of artwork and often, we do not even realize the classics we love are riddled with overtly sexist messages.

In order to combat this, I have reimagined several paintings that are famous, however, not famously controversial. Working with my own image and commonly encountered symbolic images, I hope to uncover themes within these works that I believe to be controversial and make them accessible to the average viewer.  

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Mollie Hicks:

Nervous Wreck  

no.. wait, I mean

Artist Extraordinaire

Hello everyone, and welcome to my little but continuously expanding world. It’s kind of a bumbling world (I’ve been informed that bumbling is a nicer way to phrase “I live in complete chaos - someone, please help.”) but the boring life is not for me and I wouldn’t trade the craziness for the world! Disorder and unpredictability are constants in life that should simply be accepted… especially if you’re an art student.

And that’s what I am.

Fine art is my weapon of choice to express my endless rambling opinions on a variety of subjects but, thus far, the subjects that have touched me deepest have remained within the realm of social injustices and other perceived problems within American society. My medium, however, has varied wildly.

Here is some photo evidence of that:

An American Still Life - acrylic on ceramic

Smile Pretty - oil on canvas 24″x36″

This year I am embarking on my most anxiety inducing, sleep depriving, excitingly terrifying challenge to date: my senior thesis project. By the end of this school year I will have created my very first cohesive solo show. So, bumbling I am - awkwardly but optimistically - through this awesome challenge. Nervous but freeing my creativity to go where it may. And, lucky you, here is a blog where you can watch it all happen.