You didn't let it discourage you from painting what you want. Some men flirt to compensate for chronic feelings of inadequacy and insecurity. JV: Difficult encounters are common while navigating the tricky terrain of the art world, particularly early on. What is threatening about female desire when it comes to artistic genius? Culturally, we've never had a problem exalting virile male creatives. So that's how the idea of female sexuality alongside creative authority became an interesting subject to me. They never quite knew whether to help me or come onto me, and so I was never sure if they valued my ideas. They never knew whether to flirt with me or listen to me or give me advice. They weren't used to relating to young women as people with ideas. I was always navigating power dynamics with them. I generally connect well with most male artist whose work I admire, but collectors and gallerists are another story. The art world is still very male dominated. It was around the time when I started to feel the fact of my gender acutely interfering with my professional and creative potential. This wasn't until after college, however. I think we do a much better job of teaching little girls that they can do anything, but we still have a long way to go when it comes to believing that young women can do anything. I eventually picked up a lot of Linda Nochlin's books, and some text books about Feminist art and started schooling myself. People took me more seriously at 10 than at 21. I was always an artist (like as a 5 year old) and I watched people's willingness to take me seriously change as my body changed. I grew up in Columbus Ohio and was a teenager when Paris Hilton and Girls Gone Wild were big cultural phenomenons. A print out is hanging on my studio wall as we speak. I haven't stopped thinking about it since. Then my art teacher explained to me how controversial it had been at the time and that sort of changed everything for me. I remember seeing Manet's Olympia in high school and not finding it to be much different than any other historical nude painting I'd seen. RW: My interest is personal and academic, but I would say my personal interest drove my academic interest. Does your interest in questions of gender stem from personal experience, or is it more of an academic interest? I see it as a wry take on yonic imagery and contemporary femininity. JV: Your still life "Yard Sale" is an arrangement of vessels, melons, plants, and women's accessories situated on a mirror. Williams, Yard Sale, 2015, 64 x 40, oil on canvas It may not have resulted in a very funny painting, but it was the first step toward allowing more humor into my work. It was also one of the first times my own work made me laugh. It was one of my favorite pieces from my last show. I posed for a photo and altered it in photoshop to make my body as masculine as possible. I almost killed myself painting the leaves and grass. Would I be a figurative painter interested in gender? Would I examine my own gender in painting? Would that be received as valid in the fine art world? Would I be an artist at all? The painting was an impossible image logically, but I wanted it to feel hyper real and vibrant. The thought experiment involved imagining what I might look like, how I might hold myself, what my insecurities might be, and how willing I would be to show those insecurities in a painting. I thought it was fair to paint myself as well, as if I'd been born a cis gendered male. Most images through history have reinforced a conquering hero-male artist narrative by making women's bodies the spoils of a some sort of pictorial victory. I'd been painting generous male muses and borrowing their likenesses for my feminist alternate reality. I was thinking a lot about gender as it related to the subject/object relationship, or simply, who gets to paint who. I was painting men in repose who were stalled or having spiritual awakenings in American landscapes. Williams: It comes from a body of work exploring masculinity and vulnerability in western (and specifically American) figurative painting. Williams, Self Portrait, 2014, 70 x 70 inches, oil on canvas I picked out some of your paintings that seem to emit a crackling intensity that brings to mind one word: "power." One of these, a huge, circular painting of a seated man with icey blue eyes, is titled "Self Portrait". Jonathan Viner: I love your work so I'm excited to talk shop with you. She is represented by PPOW Gallery in New York. Her figurative paintings explore pervasive American narratives about childhood, identity and gender. Robin F Williams is a painter based in Brooklyn, NY.
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