Lady or Tramp

About the artwork

This collage was created from pictures and words cut from 1950’s “Woman’s Illustrated” magazine and “Blighty” a 1950’s pin up magazine for men. The women are all smartly dressed in red but that also has its own connotations, red being associated with prostitution, the red light district - in the 1950’s red lipstick would be kept under the counter in stores. The pin up girls are a male fantasy so those images are left uncoloured, an illusion. The viewers are being asked whether there really is any difference between the two groups of woman, and who are the liberated ones? The process to achieve the final pieces is a long journey from the original idea searching through 1950's magazines to find the source material to build a collage of words and images. The collages are then hand painted with wash and paint pens to add colour and detail imitating the original feel of printed magazines. The finished collages are scanned, enlarged and produced as digital Giclée prints on fine art paper in editions of only 10. The final but most labour intensive of the process is adding the thousands of crystals, gold and silver leaf, lacquer and metallic paint. The resulting art pieces are colourful, textural and vibrant with a strong message. read more