My practice as a painter is underpinned by a feminist sensibility and seeks to create stereotypical undeniable and over exaggerated feminine aesthetics to confront sexist oppression. Exploring this idea, through the relationship between abstraction and representation, through the use of female portraiture, is informed by a variety of feminists who have made an impact throughout history with their own personal accomplishments or through activism. 

With aims to confront the male gaze superiority, larger than life portraits of significant feminists, that form a major part of my compositions, take an authoritative presence, and are incorporated with images that challenge the held detestation of ornamentation and decoration within painting. Creating largely embellished and enriched paintings with pattern and three-dimensional components aims to confront the modernist proposition that decoration isn’t considered to be ‘high art’.

Colourful abstract composition, informed by overproduction of kitsch in relation to girl childhood toys, barbie pink and flowers, is also informed by the nostalgia of girls’ childhood bedrooms.

I have looked at such women involved in the Equal Rights Amendment who have openly contributed to the feminist cause of equality like Gloria Steinem and Bella Abzug. Also, those who are more hidden within history such as Kathrine Johnson whose calculations within NASA were vital to the space shuttle program or Hedy Lamarr mostly know for acting but also, she pioneered the way for technology, forming the basis for Wi-Fi, GPS, and Bluetooth. I aspire to commemorate these women and what they have done and to immortalise and celebrate them, as well as to educate others on their contributions to history.

The use of bright colours and abstraction, backgrounds and patterns are used to either create bold designs or to create hidden pieces of information that inform the portrait evoking the idea of Aesthetics v Didactics.  More recently I have been focusing on creating vivid paintings to allow more creative freedom and adding the informative part through hidden QR codes which the viewers are encouraged to look closely and seek out.

I have been influenced by artists such as Liang Yuanwei and William Morris with their intricate and complex decorative designs influenced by pattern and form of natural elements. The visual rhetoric of Kehinde Wiley’s powerful and majestic portraiture merged with representation of the stylistic references to urban fabrics impact my own portraiture with how I chose to represent each woman.

Looking at the wrongful way’s women are presented within art and the media, Laura Mulvey and John Berger are theorists who point of view is crucial to my practice. They help to combat the notions of women being used as commodities or for visual pleasure. I use their writings along with texts such as Linda Nochlin’s ‘Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?’ to produce meaningful aptitude within my practice.