My friend Larysa Myers introduced me to the paintings of artist Jenny Saville. I’m blown away by her work!

Saville quotes from a Suzi Mackenzie interview for the Guardian:

“I am not interested in portraits as such. I am not interested in the outward personality. I don’t use the anatomy of my face because I like it, not at all. I use it because it brings out something from inside, a neurosis.”

“As a child I’d look through art books and there were no women artists. Of course, you start to ask why not. Could I make a painting of a nude in my own voice? It’s such a male-laden art, so historically weighted. The way women were depicted didn’t feel like mine, too cute. I wasn’t interested in admired or idealised beauty.”

“There was ‘immense conviction’ in making these pictures and an element of self-loathing. There is in everybody. We are taught to judge ourselves from a very young age, to groom ourselves. And this creates a neurosis for women. You see this dichotomy in women’s magazines all the time: an article on breast cancer – empowering; an article on skin products that make you look younger – neurotic.”

In reference to a painting of a transsexual: “It is a dramatic confrontation with the body as artificial construct. It is like a modern architecture of the body. Penis and breasts all at the same time. It’s electric, it’s like wow! To see something in a way you have not looked at it before.”

FYI, Larysa also does amazing  portraits. Check out her paintings: www.larysamyers.com