Saturday, October 30, 2010

Cold Blush


Initially meant to be part of the Fashion theme but then it evolved into something different that caters to my obsession of staring women, red cheeked faces and now depictions of women in communist china? No headshots for awhile PROMISE.

The figure was supposed to be sort of model-esque and default elegant but once I started searching for reference I stumbled upon a thread discussing how some Chinese women were having their faces surgically altered to narrow them so that they more closely resembled women from another region... which happens to be the original facial features I wanted to depict...

Unfortunately I can't find the original thread for the life of me. Anyway, it made me sad that the particular woman featured was so pretty before and now nobody will ever see that face ever again. So I used the woman's before face as the model. I wonder how she would feel that she had taken such drastic measures and a complete stranger like me had no interest in her new more "beautiful" face? Tricky Tricky. After reading her story it felt dirty to go with the original plan as if it somehow would be used to make more women feel bad about their faces!

This all really isn't meant to be linked with the illustration at all, it's just fun to share part of the journey.

Question for the day: Do you think artists have a social responsibility when creating?


2 comments:

  1. I believe the social responsibility depends on where the art is placed. If its in a gallery people already expect there views to be challenged and are open to viewing different worlds. If it is street art then you are effecting people without there consent, whether its a good thing or not. On the other hand its a little different for a designer. Our job is support the topic or issue or product that gets dispersed to the general public. I believe if I were to end up designing a package for a cigarette company enticing people to smoke, then yes I am socially responsible for that. I just hope that I can get a job where I have a choice of which companies I choose to design for, even though I know that is a limited prospect.

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  2. The only responsibility artists have is to the truth, which is hopefully objective. Social responsibility is a function of morality which is completely subjective, and usually a function of who has the most power Though some socially relevant art survives historical scrutiny (Picassos Guernica for instance),most of it is only remembered as part of art history courses. Think of the social realism movements in Nazi Germany, and Stalin’s Russia of the 30’s. Art is about trying to be natural, not responsible.

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