"Call me when you get home."

I paint on embroidery hoops with oil paint as a question to the hierarchy and sexism within fine art and how embroidery, and many other art forms traditionally created by women, are often left out of the fine art world. Oil paint is seen as superior to many other art forms. You walk into a gallery and see the art masters created by men framed in their glory. You walk into an antique shop and in the dusty corner you see beautiful embroidered pieces that took years to create. Why are paintings deemed superior to other art forms? Especially art forms typically created by women. 

Within my work, I reference the photographs of sex workers, as throughout art history men have painted nude women for the male gaze. Women are painted for the enjoyment and consumption of men to endure, they lack bodily autonomy. I paint women who choose how they pose, when they pose, and for whom they pose, and empower themselves in doing so. Sex workers are often seen negatively within societal social norms and traditionally in art history figurative work and portraiture is reserved for high class and royalty only. Painting figurative paintings of sex workers in the same beauty as royalty creates an equality of the two. The title of my series “Call me when you get home.” is representative of the deep care and trauma that women and gender minorities face by simply existing in a patriarchal society.