"Why are you obsessed with drawing boobs and vaginas?" A question I am asked often.
My question I'd ask is "what's wrong with me drawing these things? Why are they not normalized in our society?"
As a woman, all through my life I have been taught to "cover up", that if I wear revealing clothes that I'm "asking for it", or that my body should appear a "certain way". Women shouldn't be to blame for the actions of others which present no self control and shouldn't be held to any expectation to what the female body should look like.
All women are beautiful and deserve so much better.
In my work I want to challenge the expectations that society has towards the female body. I want to make women know that no matter their shape, size, body hair, stretch marks, are all okay - you shouldn't change the way you look to fit in to an expectation because we are all so different and that's what makes us beautiful.
"Just because I draw a woman naked, does not make it sexual."
When I draw 'Veronica' doing her everyday things, its not made to be sexual. She's an aloe vera which is just doing something natural to her, and dressing the way she wants to dress and feels most comfortable.
I made Veronica in a way to express my own eternal feelings of frustration towards the world and how society views women. On a personal note, she's a fictional woman that I look up to and when I draw her she reminds me that my own body is beautiful no matter its shape or size.
Growing up, watching films and tv shows, I didn't have many female roles to look up to and I knew I had to change something about this. Now at the age of 21, I'm watching shows and recognizing how much a female role model at a young age is so important and how can I implement this into my own work. I want other women to look at my female characters and look up to them the way I do.
Strong women make other women stronger.
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