Art's Inspirations

Not too long ago, Jennine at the Coveted asked for people's inspirations, but geared it more towards artists with their own style. I couldn't help but comment that mine, in that regard, would be photographer Cindy Sherman. The way Sherman addresses herself as a photographic subject, an artist, and her personal style, was part of my own individual development long before I knew who she was. Perhaps it is related to both of our loves and experiences in film and the theater.

On a personal and artistic level, I have often used my photography as a means of creating a dramatic persona for myself, to discover aspects of myself that I may not have otherwise known about. Sherman once said, "I'd play with makeup for awhile just to see where it took me." Many nights, my efforts would result in evening performances where I'd do my hair, make-up, costuming, lighting, and create mini fashion shoots in my apartment. Sometimes they manifest beyond that, in to something that is for purposeful wear, like when my friends and I dressed as characters from Alice in Wonderland.

Cindy Sherman did not leave her personas to only her photography. In her collection of "The Complete Untitled Film Stills: Cindy Sherman," she says,

Back in college, I'd started to wear them as regular clothes [costumes]. I'd also go to openings in character; once I went as a pregnant woman. Another time I turned into Rose Scalisi.... In New York I continued to dress-up-in-public things just a few times. I went to some parties in character: once I was a checkout girl, other times just in a more general disguise. It was great to feel incognito at an event where I felt awkward... We'd also agreed I would occasionally come to work in costume [featured right].

My inspiration and likeness extends beyond our perceptions and deliberate modifications of our physical appearance. When reading "The Complete Untitled Film Stills: Cindy Sherman," I was often struck by her responses to how and why she created the work she did, her academic and intellectual response to the her work and the cinematic/photographic theories. While the depiction of women she created is critically examined (particularly given the civil rights movements of the 60s and 70s, when she was shooting), Sherman says of her work,

"I didn't think of what I was doing as political: to me it was a way to make the best out of what I liked to do privately, which was dress up.... it was just fun to look different. It had nothing to do with fantasizing about being another person: it was instinctive."