Painting an object......

While shopping for a dustpan and brush I came across these - bejewelled and decorated dustpan and brushes. I felt that these were kind of sexist as it would make it seem as if women were the only ones who buy these household objects thus saying that women do the housework. These as well as my stitching pieces, inspired me to paint onto an object, more specifically a dustpan and brush. I wanted to go back to a fine art practice as I had been exploring activist art and thus creating artwork in said theme. I wanted to use the same kind of text and imagery that I had been using, but rather than print onto the object I wanted to paint onto it.

I first painted the object white using white emulsion. I wanted a nice, even base colour, and wanted it to be a paintable surface. It took few layers for it to become even and thick enough for me to start painting onto it. After the paint had fully dried, I started to paint motifs along the object - I painted a vine on either side of the dustpan, along the edge. I liked how the vines connected to the brush once I placed it on the dustpan. I then painted some flowers on the tip of the dustpan - using the same flower motifs as the prints and studies in my sketchbook. I then started to paint the text along the brush and across the dustpan. I used the phrases ' Like a Girl', 'Women Belong in the Kitchen', 'Know Your Place', and used the word 'Feminazi'. I used a pink colour as the many connotations is feminine, girly, sweet, gentle, but is also the colour of universal love of oneself and of others, which relates nicely to the themes that I'm exploring here. Phrases which are used against women painted in a colour which is a symbol of self love and universal love.

I'm happy with how this has come out, however I think that I could use other motifs and possibly experiment with other text. I think I might do this again using another object which is stereotyped in a similar way to this one, and try out another way in displaying the text. I might even collage onto this object. But I think I'll brainstorm some ideas before I continue onwards. I think these work well with my textile pieces and I think that again, these would work well within a series.

Things to do next:

- more objects?

- different text?

- collage instead of paint?

- series of objects?

- combine with textiles?

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BA2 Fine Art - Reflective Journal

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