My most recent painting work is based around the ideas of fairytales, childrens books. I have been looking at there roles in establishing gender roles in there audience, gender steriotypes really in a way. what do these stories say to young girls today... it tends to be left up to a prince to rescue the women in these books... maybe young girls need to be thought more self reliance.?? these series of paintings-drawings are just the begining of me thinking about gender role conditioning... the above is based on snow white.

This one is based on sleeping beauty... i think i want to write my own fairytale for children, where women are self reliant and men can show emotions- the blade does after all cut both ways.
I like these images as they help me in starting to think about fairy tales and illustrated books in a different less structured manner- the writings of Kathy Atker is fundimental to this.

This is little red riding hood. in my work i have tried where appropriate to use process's that would have been- are viewed as female crafts rather then the expressionistic male centered view on art. I have tried to challange both materials and scale, using paper works and sewing, stitching, collage... these are very gender charged material process's, even the process of decorating is seen in a very steriotyped female light.

This above piece is based loosly around the idea of rapunzel. In many of the pieces i used things like nail enamel and make up again to challenge or shine light on pre concieved notions of gender and art.

On the casting front, i set out to work with chocolate after reading The Edible Women- see earlier posts for details on mould-i think i will continue with this, ill re back it by redoing the plaster support and then i thing i will start looking at cake decoration, alongside this i hope to do a clear resin cast through gradually layering the resin...

I sapose in a way i am looking at the role of the female body, self adornment, steriotypical gender labeled roles...... each material dictates how the piece will be read and i find this liberating as the work can open itself up and potentially be about anything.

On the book front i was thinking about the whole aspect of shame based around the female body- menstration, arousal, masterbation... reading Nancy Friday really brought this to light for me. the importance of masterbation to a womans self confidencepotentially is huge. as nancy says herself- it is hard to feel good about yourself when you thing of your genatles as a sewer.

as a reaction to the lack of appraisal for the remale genatelia i made this book- again using gender steriotyped processes where appropriate.

I am interested in processes that have a rich gendered history for momen- such as quilting, wieving, homemaking, lace, crochet, sewing.... things that were and are also done by men but that have always been associated with women- i think it is more reasonable to use a language and a history that is already existant in society as a bases to be built upon- whether it be through appraisal or undermining it...

I really enjoyed the whole element of handy craft in these pieces

Even the medium of water colour is a very gendered one in the history of artI quite like the connoctations of the material- chocolate in this cast. the material really dictated how it is viewed.

i wanted to really elevate banal day to day life as a women. i really like the recoil these pieces get. its strange the whole over riding idea of bodily fluids as dirty. there is such a stigma aroung menstration... it seems to be something women attach alot of shame to.

in some way - like the vagina monologes- i feel if we lifted the veil and were more open about these things it would be for the best- for one we would know what was 'normal'. it would be healthier also for society- it would also irradicate alot of stigma- however im sad to say that alot of the feed back ive gotten from women my age has been- 'thats not very ladylike Amy' and 'youll never find a man to put up with all that stuff''

I like the idea of the
my plans for future work include altering childrens toys, more photography, photography of objects as finished pieces. a childrens book. writing stories, toy play houses but with a new modern family... maybe as a video... role play.. polly pockets.. making toys relavent for kids in the modern world. an explore your body book for both sexes... i like the play between sexuality, gender roles and the conditioning of children through books and toys.... i want to read more about the female crafts movement, lesbian art.. gender trouble... fairy tales.