Resistance!

A #pitstopchat trend on Twitter had me answering a question about the image of Resistance.

this took me back to last year, when I produced a cover illustration for a Uni brief on this very subject.

I went right back to our first experience of resistance as children, and wished to produce something using the body language of children, which spoke of the resistance between parent & child. Something as simple as not coming in for a bath. I was heavily influenced, and still am, by the honesty of Sally Mann’s photography regarding children, and wished to incorporate this influence somehow.

I came upon the vehicle of paint by numbers. As a child, I painstakingly applied the paint, neatly and within the lines, according to the colours that were given.

My response was to produce a subtle but negative effect in the veiwer. you see “Ah, paint by numbers!” then you realise something is not quite right about it. This is a portrait and as such, one expects to see certain things. But here is a child who is quite obviously in defiance, not in her best clothes or posed nicely for the camera. The way the Paint is applied is thick and full of movement. Short, quick & defiant strokes, not the usual, carefully applied paint. I considered making the colour switch more obvious but it somehow seemed too much. This little girl is so comfortable with my parenting that she feels able to stand up for herself when she needs to and the beaming smile she gave me after the initial photo was taken, is evidence of a safe kind of resistance, one which says, “I know my own mind, you may not always agree with me but I know you love me anyway!

A kind of feel good resistance.

Child showing resistance painted