So...What Am I Doing Here?

As my profile reads, my name is Jason Cole and I’m a visual artist working in Memphis, TN (although I’ll soon be moving to Jackson, TN). If you are at all curious about my previous work, you can visit my website: http://web.mac.com/jasonwilliamcoleart. It needs to be updated badly, but it will give you a glimpse of the themes I have dealt with over the past few years.

This blog, however, is going to serve as a record of a series of paintings I am beginning to work on tentatively titled “Buxom”. As this title might suggest, the series will consist of portraits of women who fit into the fashion industry-termed category of “plus-sized”. The work will be on display in the art gallery of Playhouse On The Square in Memphis, TN in the months of September and October of this year (I’ll give specific dates when I actually have them).

I happen to find a full figure be particularly attractive and far more demonstrative of womanhood than the typical supermodel frame that is currently touted as the criterion against which American women so often judge their own bodies. I don’t ascribe to the idea that beauty must conform to narrowly defined, culturally sanctioned standards. To make unfair comparisons like this is to categorize women into what is, essentially, a caste system of hierarchy that devalues a woman’s worth based not on her virtues, but on physical appearance alone. To be beautiful, by this system is to be thin and Barbie-esque.

This standard of rail-thin beauty is very specific to our current epoch. Not so long ago, figures that would be considered “obese” by today’s society were prolific in Western art:

Now, I am very aware of the prevalence of “the male gaze” in these images and the sexual objectification of their female subjects, but that only heightens the fact that for these (male) artists, the “plus-sized” woman was a standard of beauty. These works date from the Renaissance up into the 19th century. By comparison, in 2011 a Google image search for “fashion models” will result in photographs like these:

What you will not find—unless you specifically type in her name—is an image of Mia Tyler, the sister of actress Liv Tyler and a successful fashion model in her own right:

There are many other prominent women in the worlds of fashion, entertainment, and music that fit into the “plus-sized” category. Below are photographs of a few of these movers and shakers, all of whom I think are beautiful. How many do you actually recognize?

With the series “Buxom”, I want to create a large series of portrait paintings that will showcase “plus sized” women I have come to know over the years. The goal is to depict these subjects as the strong, confident, sexy women they are and rightly should be. However, I want to carefully avoid the pitfalls of pure objectification, making certain that it is understood that there is a mind behind each face. To accompany the work is this blog, where I will document the sittings I have with each subject and where I will record my evolving thoughts over the course of the summer leading up to the exhibition in Memphis. I will begin working next week. Please join me on this adventure.