Wales has afforded me something that I couldn’t have in Berlin, a studio. And what’s better, it is in my own home, so I don’t really have to go anywhere. I am still waiting on an easel, but I have already started a new small series of paintings that I am happy with.

In light of my recent images being considered ‘inappropriate’ and ‘offensive’, it has really made me look at my work and wonder why it would be considered as such.
One of the images in question was used for an album cover for Sascha Mersch. At his launch he was not allowed to distribute flyers with this image on it as the host deemed it ‘too offensive’. Which both angered and disappointed me. I think mainly because this occurred in Berlin which I had thought to be quite a forward thinking community.

There are plenty of a of album covers or promotional material for musicians that are raunchy. That depict the female in various states of undress, and generally of a far more sexual nature than my drawing. There are nude images all over the internet, and I have seen plenty of bare breasts and bottoms on facebook and myspace too. I wonder why my drawings have been targeted by myspace and by this venue. Especially considering that it is art, rather than just somebody posing nude to sexually stimulate people.

I believe that the major reason for this (rather disappointing) reaction to my drawings may come down to the fact that it portrays a woman with pubic hair. Not a woman with ‘trimmed’ and ‘tidied’ pubes, but a natural hair where it ought to be. I believe that this push to make woman wax off all hair ‘down there’ is alarming. Many woman justify it by saying things like, ‘I like to feel clean’ and ‘tidy’. Who said you were dirty in the first place? This waxing of pubes to make oneself look twelve again is absurd and only dictated through the fashion of pornography. Are we really that vain? Are we so easily controlled by fashion that we will spend our money on getting some stranger to rip the pubes out of our groinal region in order to fit in? People tell me, and I have read in articles, that they do it for themselves. What rubbish. If fashion and pornography hadn’t demanded it of women I doubt that many people would be pulling their pubes out just for their own benefit. Why? Because it’s ridiculous. And it is for something that most woman who do do it, aren’t a part of. Porn.

I was recently contacted by a gallery and invited to exhibit with them and they were quite offhand with me. It got me thinking- I am tired of galleries that ask for a large sum of money either through the sale, upfront or both. I am tired of being treated like I should be thankful for being shown in a space, I would like to be treated with some respect. For one of the first times in my life, I turned it down.
A friend of mine, Leo, gave me some great advice, as well as a link to this very useful article. Much of it is plain common sense, but it also brings up some very thought provoking ideas and I highly recommend it to anybody serious about exhibiting on a professional level.
I think there are a lot of you out there who are really upping their game with your work and how you want it represented, so this is for you guys.

Remember, art galleries need us.

http://www.artbusiness.com/osoqutscawas.html

This one is particularly interesting too:

http://artcalendar.com/article.asp?ID=145

For facebook users, I have a facebook group to put up details of all future events and new works.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lily-Mae-Martin/123988623634