Seeing Black and White : A Love Story
So, here’s my thing about the human body: I think it’s dropdead gorgeous.
I could draw, paint, photograph, touch, write poems about, and otherwise give hommage to this exquisite machine for as long as my own body keeps functioning… and I probably will.
Nudes are often my favorite images, whether the subject of my own artwork or someone else’s. Although I’m currently an equal-opportunity admirer, for a long time, I found women’s bodies to be more naturally beautiful than those of the opposite sex.
I noticed early on that there is a stark contrast between the strong, bountiful and animalistic forms represented in fine art and the unnaturally shaped, scented and shaven maidens that are sold and used to sell pharmaceuticals or packs of beer. In the former, the vision of fat gracefully hugging muscles and the sense that these women are sexy, but not helpless, inspired a sense of compassion and deep love for my portrait sisters and, synecdochically, for myself and all females. In the development of my identity, I believe that these works played a crucial and benevolent role.
Today, as I mentioned, I appreciate men’s bodies with a similar understanding. We’re made differently, but in the end, we’re all trying to acquire the same basic measures of satisfaction: physical, metaphysical, spiritual, &c. I also love to sit back and enjoy the blurry areas of the sex distinction, which are more prevalent than the concrete ones, but more subtle, as well. A man’s penis is recognized in a fraction of an instant, but a carefully-trained eye will notice the sympathy, anger, or vulnerability in the line of his mouth and the curve of his posture – emotions that are neither feminine nor masculine in nature or frequency.
What does the human body mean to you, and how would you represent it?
Are you self-conscious? Proud? Willing to play with gender?
Love,
Your Kitty
Oh My Massilia 
Beautiful!! Added your link to my blog. Good thing bc I come here all the time. =)
Very cool! I like these pictures! The human body is beautiful, so much more so than people show it to be in ads.
Love this entry and your blog is something of a gem! I have so much to say on this subject but, having woken up with a mild hangover, my brain is too numb to say anything coherent! I will just note that, as an eternally shy, insecure and self-conscious girl, it’s a major breakthrough for me to walk around the house naked and not be fearful of THE MIRROR. Loving the human body starts and ends with loving the one you have, and realizing that “imperfections” are a social mirage that shouldn’t scare you into running away from your own flesh.
Anyway, long story short, thank you for your comment on my blog! I shall promptly send you a Pinterest invite to your contact address, and I’ll be looking forward to reading more of your lovely thoughts :)
I wish I could draw male body. I think I draw girls all the time because I am a girl myself. Never really thought about until read your post. I tried to draw males, but omg, how horrible they turn out, lol.
By the way, love Da Vinci’s pictures. I have a book on his anatomical drawings.
Oh hey, I love you.
Seriously though, everything you write is just magic to me.
Please never stop.
:)
Since I mentioned that I enjoy your blog, it is also important that I revisit this post and tell you that I find it lovely!
One of Paul’s friends, a photographer living in Hawaii, took some very nice nude photographs. I thought you might enjoy them! :) http://www.facebook.com/afeinphoto2
This is beautifully written. I also love the human body as it is. It’s really an amazing thing. I’m definately a self concious person, though I’m really working hard to get out of that mindset. I hope I do, because I would love to be confident in myself as a person, inside and out. It’s a work in progress.
hiya its glendas from swap bot., you have an awesome blog, love reading and looking at it and I am now a follower, thank you love glenda