shanmonster | Girl Talk

I'm taking a Coursera course on Art Techniques, and thought I'd share my work with you.

[Girl Talk]

Girl Talk is a decorative drawing which started with HB pencil line work, and then the design was coloured in and detailed with ballpoint pen and metallic, fluorescent, and matte markers on drawing paper. I chose markers because of their vibrancy and the way they bleed into one another. I wanted the lines to appear crisp from a distance, but more blurred upon closer look. I chose the dark purple for the negative space to give the lacy design solidity, and to make the lurid colours of the flowers pop.

The original idea behind the piece is not what the piece became. Originally, I was working with an image from a dream in which my teeth were empires at war for the crown. However, once I had drawn the mouth, I was reminded of an album cover in which a close-up of a human eye tricks the viewer into believing they are looking at genitals. My dream, already a pun, was transmogrified by this image into yet another pun, evocative of the peaceful feminine imagery of blossoms while juxtaposed with the equally feminine, yet more violent imagery, of the vagina dentata. I find the juxtaposition humourous. Just as my mind wandered through the creation of this piece, the viewers may also experience free association imagery, word play, and other such connections.