2021 Winter Art Show

Meet the Robinsons

From the beginning of this project, I knew I wanted to dissect the societal belief of 'female perfection'; I also knew I wanted to create a portrait series because that's the subject matter I most enjoy painting. During my brainstorming process, I found a graph released on tinder showing the average ages at which both men and women swipe right. For women, the relationship was linear. As women got older, so did the men they were swiping right on. But for men, no matter their age, the age of women they were swiping right on was in their early 20s. Seeing this graph was jarring, to say the least, but this discovery, coupled with all of my old family pictures I found, guided me to where my project is today.

Using my maternal grandmother's last name, my project is called Meet the Robinsons. My work as a whole is an ode to female aging. It is meant to highlight and celebrate, rather than demonize or ignore, women and the changes that come with with aging. The series starts with a self-portrait of my first birthday, followed by my cousin now (14), then my mom in what would be considered a women's peak (her early 20s), followed by my aunt now (47), and then ended with my grandmother in present-day (84). Each portrait has a different background color. However, the most important background is in the portrait of my mom. A women's peak or her "golden age" is seen as the most critical years of her life. By making the background of my mother's portrait white, I was able to symbolize this importance while contrasting it with the various colors of the other portraits, as they are meant to highlight how we hold women of specific ages up to different standards. My biggest artistic inspiration for this project was Elizabeth Peyton because I find that my painting style is very similar to hers. I took great interest in her ability to create a watercolor-like transparency with acrylic paints to create very soft glass-like paintings. I heavily utilized gel medium throughout my project because I found it the best way to include all of the details or imperfections that I see as the most essential part of a woman's face but that other artists might prefer to leave out.

© 2021 Tom the Traveler, 12 Pike St, New York, NY 10002
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