RK's Artistic Scribblings

Came across this art installation, Liza Lou's Kitchen, at the Whitney Museum of American Art, NYC. It's a kitchen made of tiny glass beads, that artist Liza Lou did, taking 5 yrs. to complete, from 1991 - 1996.

My favorite part is the sink.

As an artist with a focus on fat and trans bodies, my understanding of the human form comes from seeing variety.

I admire bodies that don't fit into the ideal form, because they are all the more common and all the more ignored.

You can find a million drawings featuring fat bodies that are drawn with the sole purpose of being appealing due to following the ideal form. Whether it be because our eyes have gotten the idea, through repetitive influence, that that form is *ideal*. Or for audiences to lust after.

Finding art depicting variety in body types, in fat distribution and structure, is very.. very hard. Sometimes, if you want to see more of something, YOU ought to be the thing you want to see more of.

If you truly want to be a body positive artist, learning to draw a generally appealing fat body is less than half the battle. Thin bodies have variety in fat distribution and in structure. Fat bodies just accentuate these forms.

Practice the ways fat falls around the body, see how it feels when you let yourself play around with the human form. Have FUN with it.

You may need to learn how to set up your paints and such… but this is what people did, live, while the show aired. That’s what the show was for. I had family members create lovely works of art they enjoyed, which I still have on my walls, because William Alexander and Bob Ross both said:

SCREW METICULOUS CLASSICAL ART PRACTICES — JUST GRAB A PALETTE KNIFE AND BIG OLD BRUSH AND PAINT!

They freed a whole generation of people who were taught to paint detail and realism and exact representation of reality — people who largely gave up this kind of thing because it got tedious.

I watched the joy of family members as they rediscovered art as a messy fun spontaneous half hour activity.

here is a master list of great art tools that can make your workflow easier! 👇 (updating, please consider supporting me on kofi or check out my other works)