{"id":2316,"date":"2018-06-06T11:21:31","date_gmt":"2018-06-06T10:21:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/everpress.com\/blog\/?p=2316"},"modified":"2018-11-07T12:19:26","modified_gmt":"2018-11-07T12:19:26","slug":"censorship-vs-the-female-body-with-jess-cochrane","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/everpress.com\/blog\/censorship-vs-the-female-body-with-jess-cochrane\/","title":{"rendered":"Censorship vs the Female Body with Jess Cochrane"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tell us how you came to develop your personal style\u2026<\/span><\/h3>\n

I started painting the way I do now while I was at uni. I started studying graphic design and I finished doing visual art. The short version is that my mental health took a turn for the worst. I had a melt down and realised that I didn\u2019t want to be a graphic designer. I didn\u2019t want to make logos and I didn\u2019t want to sit at a computer all day. But art came so naturally. During my final year my teachers told us to draw from the heart for it to be authentic. I read magazines and consumed culture through fashion publications, but I was also doing technical life drawings and paintings, which meant that the two types of women I was connecting with on a day to day basis were polar opposites. One was very real and honest, one was falsified and very aesthetically pleasing. So by painting over magazine covers and editorials I combined the two. I had this massive collection of Vogue <\/i>magazines that I destroyed. It was a pretty cathartic process for me, because during the time I was pretty much suicidal. My mental health was so bad, I was very, very unwell. So in a way I helped myself by really addressing my issues and anxiety by making work like this. I got very lucky. <\/span><\/p>\n

How does that compare to your work we see today?<\/span><\/h3>\n

When I started to photograph my own subjects, rather than using images from magazines, I connected with the women in my paintings in such a personal way. Anyone who wants to be in a painting like that has had some sort of hardship or perhaps their own painful story \u2013 it\u2019a as though the painting is a breakthrough moment in a way. I\u2019ve also realised that my work doesn\u2019t necessarily have to\u00a0<\/span>be in a gallery space. We share so much online these days it\u2019s almost like creating another sub-culture within pop culture \u2013 one with more room for movement, one that\u2019s not so perfect. We\u2019re not so afraid to share imperfections in that space, to be more real, or to share self-love and stop censoring every little flaw or imperfection that we have. I think that it\u2019s starting to happen in the current climate, but it needs to happen more. I\u2019m all for being at the forefront regardless of your size, your shape, your gender, your race \u2013 whatever.<\/span><\/p>\n

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A post shared by Jess Cochrane (@jesscochranepaints_)<\/a> on