Grace in the frame!

Yesterday I explained how I was getting the frame I'd designed for Grace's Pre Raphaelite portrait delivered to the studio and it arrived courtesy of Tom the carpenter this afternoon. I absolutely love it! Here it is with the portrait in situ.

As you can see it has a wide flat surface and little roundals in each corner. The roundals are going to have small wooden butterflies placed inside. The butterflies are there to continue the theme of the painting. This being a celebration of transgender femininty, the butterfly is a symbol of transformation and beauty which I think is very fitting.

I based my design on frames that had been designed by Pre Raphaelite artists to enhance their art work and show it off it it's best advantage. Nature; flowers, animals and insects were a usual sorce of inspiration in the symbolism they used.

A detail of the frame for Holman Hunt's The Scapegoat showing Heartsease and Egyptian Palms to reflect the story of the Scapegoat

 

This weekend I will cover the frame in gold metal leaf so it will look something like the frames you can see above. Sumptuous, yet simple and stylised. I think it will look gorgeous! Once again thanks to Tom for making such a wonderful job of my frame. 

 

This work along with several chalk studies of Grace will be exhibited at the Cornerhouse from 31st July next week until 9th Sept. There will be drinks in the bar 6-7pm  on Thursday so come along and say hi and see the finished thing!

Gemma ***

Exhibiton plans

I think it's about time I shared with you the plans for my current art work. If you've seen this blog before you will have noticed I've been posting updates about my portrait of trans gender beauty Grace Oni Smith, who I've been working with for about a year now.

The finished Pre Raphaelite style portrait along with a selection of studies in chalk will be shown as part of Cornerhouse Projects between July 31st-Sept 9th to coincide with Manchester Pride. You can read the official write up on the website here: http://www.cornerhouse.org/art/art-exhibitions/cornerhouse-projects-gemma-parker-layla-sailor

I'm really excited to show this work in progress (I plan to continue exploring this theme after the dates on show) not least because I am also getting a custom made frame for the main piece made to my own design! It will very much in the Pre Raphaelite style and will further extend the theme of transgender and transformation. I'll share this with you as it is created.

I've got about 6 weeks to finish the portrait, and so far I'm pretty happy with it. Every time I sit in front of it I make about a million little alterations and changes. It's true that spending time away from your work really does allow you see what needs doing. I get about one full day to work on it per week at the moment so I plan on upping that, sticking some Kylie on full blast and making each studio day count!

Here's where I got to last week. I was having awful trouble with her neck the week before but I've managed to see where I was going wrong and put the foundations down for the right shading now. I'm going to put her tattoos in next week so that will be fun too! Can't wait to get going on her hands and all that hair!

Come back next time to see how I get on

Gemma***

We're Born Naked The Rest Is Drag

Last week I went along to one of The Beauty Project events at Selfridges in Manchester; 'We're Born Naked, The Rest is Drag: Identity, Fantasy and Beauty beyond Gender'

Upon reading this title I would have bought myself a ticket and gone along anyway! However the added draw was that Grace Oni Smith, the subject of my current portrait exploring transgender femininity, was one of the guest speakers on a panel consisting of drag queen Cheddar Gawjus (AKA Dr Micheal Atkins) and Dr Sally Hines Associate Professor of Sociology and Gender Studies at The University of Leeds.

It was a brilliant talk and gave me me lots think about. Grace spoke from the heart and gave us an insight into her life as a trans gender female. How her discovery of make up was a tool she used not only to transform her appearance but also transform her life.

     
Taking inspiration from strong androgynous role models like Siouxsie Sioux David Bowie Grace Jones and Boy George, a teenage Grace began to experiment with her looks and built a goth persona who wore her make up like armour. Still living as a male in a small rural town, this act of deliberate defiance to the norm brought her much attention, most of it negative resulting in being beaten up for being different.

As the panel explained, gender is something we perceive through learnt roles and behaviour. We copy it from others as we develop and there are certain acceptable characteristics we associate with men and women. However as in Grace's case, these ideals are malleable, they can be played with, broken down and rebuilt into new and sometimes confusing formats that challenge society and make people uncomfortable.

Take for instance this years queen of Eurovision, Conchita Wurst. An undeniably beautiful drag artist who just happens to wear a beard along with her lipstick and wigs. Many people's reaction was one of bewilderment, even disgust; It was too provoking to flaunt both genders at once.

Cheddar Gawgus pointed out that while Conchita was challenging for many people, the fact they were introduced to a new concept of what gender can be was a positive step.

For Grace, her gender is no longer the same issue it once was. As she rather fabulously put it, she is 'a new person'. But it hasn't been easy to get to this positive stage in her life. As an individual of transgender she still scrutinizes her looks on a daily basis and it isn't easy to escape that very marginalised view of what acceptable beauty is in western society.

Cheddar illustrated this perfectly by showing us results of Google searches for 'Beautiful women' and 'Beautiful men'. Both searches showed white young symmetrical flawless faces and slim lithe bodies.This is not a representation of most of the worlds population. Yet so many people strive to attain it or as close to it as possible.

  Grace, Cheddar and Dr Hines all suggested drag was one of the most powerful ways of subverting our narrow view of beauty and gender and I found this the most interesting aspect of the discussion.

Despite drag making somewhat of a comeback in mainstream society thanks to shows like RuPaul's Drag Race, the idea of what drag can be is still to be fully explored. Traditionally viewed as a man dressing up like a woman to become an extreme character, it was argued drag can actually be a platform for anyone of any gender to play with roles and looks. Women men and people of transgender can all be drag queens or kings. However, sometimes drag doesn't even fit into these roles, as in the case of artists Leigh Bowery and Cindy Sherman. Their use of drag is both surreal and without limits.

It is this total freedom to play with the carefully constructed boundaries we put in place as we grow, and the unobtainable ideals which we try to achieve in everyday life which makes drag an awesome device to navigate your personal identity.

It really made me think. As the title to the show suggested ('We're born naked, the rest is drag' a wonderful quote by Ru Paul), we all indulge in drag to some degree to create our outward persona. From applying a dash of mascara to choosing which shoes to wear we are constructing the story we choose to tell each day. Drag, in it's fullest sense is just an extreme form of this. If you chose to ignore the learned patterns that keep our identities in check and felt free to wear anything and act in any way, how would you choose to leave the house this morning? 

I'm so glad I went to this event, I enjoyed every minute and I'm sure I'll be applying these ideas to future art work, and maybe next time I sit down at the dressing table too!

 

Gemma***

New art project part 3: Smoke and Mirrors

Tuesday saw the next stage of my new project with burlesque/drag and professional make up artist Grace Oni Smith. 

Planned as a skills swap session, I was going to draw her in preparation for her Pre Raphaelite style portrait and she was going to show me her make up ideas for the painting. (To find out more behind this project about transgender femininity take a look at past posts)

The thing was I hadn't counted on how much work goes into creating a drag persona. Cue almost 2 hours of make up application as Grace, using Rossetti paintings for reference (particularly Bocca Baciata as seen below), slowly transformed herself into one of the Victorian glamour girls.

It was fascinating to watch, and I'll take you through the many stages right now to give you a taste of how the transformation happened.

Lets start with a before shot like they do on QVC. Here we see the lovely Grace sans any make up and incidentally any eyebrows (I'll come back to this in a bit). She is sporting this seasons must have,  the make up pashmina (for keeping you glamorously warm while applying). I gotta get me one of those! 

Here is Grace's make up, this is just a small part of the many drawers full to the brim with foundations, powders, creams unguents and glosses. To a make up fanatic like me, this was Aladdin's cave!

Primer: Throughout the afternoon, I saw many comparison between applying make up and the painting of a picture onto canvas. Just like preparing a canvas, the skin must be primed. And this is drag, not your average make up so it's important to use heavy duty stuff. This was a silicone based primer, which takes other make up on top very well and holds it in place.

One of the mantra's from the afternoon was 'Blend, blend and then blend again!' Here Grace blends her primer in.

OK, it's not as bad as it looks, this is actually the contouring that was drawn on before it was blended. As you can see the shadow (a dark concealer for dark skin tones) was painted onto the hollows and dips of the face and around the jaw line. The purpose is to create the illusion of sculpting the face. Just like painting, you 'knock back' the darker areas to create shape.

This is TV stick, a make up used for television, or as Grace pointed out TV=Transvestite, this is a favourite for drag queens as it has such strong coverage. I think this was used for highlighting, which you can see...

...here! Already, a more defined look is coming through. Grace took great care to sculpt her nose, giving it a streamlined and straight look similar to a Rossetti model, and also highlighted the centre of the forehead as she explained a domed forehead is more feminine. Whereas shading pushes areas back, highlighting brings them forward. If you want and area to stand out, highlight it!

Once blended together very carefully with a sponge (which btw is NOT good for day to day make up as it really pushes the product into the skin. It is however wonderful for drag and theatrical make up for that very reason) translucent powder was applied all over, then as can be seen here, MORE shading, this time with powder. This was followed by more highlighting in powder also. The reason was to really create an intensified look.

Next is eyebrows. Remember I said I'd tell you more about the eyebrows? Grace recently shaved hers off, and not for the first time. She explained brows act as a boundary to where make up can be applied and taking them away gives you the opportunity to alter the structure of the face. This is a woman dedicated to her craft (it'd be a cold day in hell I ever waved goodbye to my brows). I could totally see what she meant. By having no brows she had the chance to create whatever shape or line or absence of line she wanted. In order to achieve a Pre-Raphaelite style, Grace drew on a high arched brow in a blonde pencil. Using feathery strokes to create the illusion of hairs. Again, this is very similar to painting brows for portraiture.

Now it's on to the make up most women would be familiar with, the pretty bit, the eyes. After using a windscreen wiper action in the socket with a taupe colour, Grace applied a sheer mineral powder of green and pink on the lids. The colours were chosen to emulate those found on the Pre-Raphaelite women. Colours which helped to give them an ethereal look.

A bit of mascara and the eyes are done. Deceptively natural and simple but still defined. A little tip Grace passed on at this point was that you should always work on the feature you want to be your focal point first. This allows you to work around it and create a balanced look.

TEA BREAK! 

For this look Grace decided to just use a dark neutral lip liner and left the centre bare as her own lips are quite dark naturally. Just a touch of balm was added to give them luster.

At this point I asked if Grace was always called upon to do her fellow queens make up when performing, but interestingly she answered that most drag queens prefer to get ready alone without disturbances (just like me and my friend Olivia). She called this process of transformation 'coaxing the lady out'. I think that is a gorgeous and provocative way of describing the process.

After a soft peachy blusher was added to the cheek bones, dots of glimmery pigment powder were added to the highest points of the face and then softly blended in to give luminosity.

The look was completed by a cascade of raven curls. This isn't the wig we will use for the portrait but it does give an idea of how the finished look will be. Words we used to describe the Pre-Raphaelite paintings we visited at Manchester Art Gallery certainly spring to mind here: Sensual, strong, luminous and soft.

Make up used to create this look included high quality brands such as Illamasqua and MAC right through to Rimmel, Sleek and theatrical make up. It just goes to show top names do not always have to be used exclusively to create a high quality finish, although years of training and practice do help. It might be worth sliding back to the before photo here, just so you can see how utterly powerful artifice can be. Grace has totally created a different persona inspired by the iconic beauties of Pre-Raphaelite art.

As she applied the many stages of make up Grace's whole demeanour changed. She became more fabulous, more energised and more expressive. This was truly an example of someone who uses make up as an extension of their personality, and it was mesmerizing to witness.

I never did get around to sketching her as we ran out of time, so join us next time as we take the next step along our Pre-Raphaelite adventure, challenging conventional ideas about beauty and femininity...