Jodi Bonassi - It’s Not Pretty

mixed media on plywood
Artist: 
Year: 
2011

mixed media on plywood, 23 1/4” x 12”

On your left there are instructions for a procedure. On your left are the medical instructions torn into tiny pieces and you understand how your body is going to be torn into pieces. “I’m a robot”, You think, wondering if you need those parts. Blood drains from your breasts and me, I am draining out. The word pretty, real, and desire flow in the blood river. That’s how it feels. Everything you think you know is flowing away and you’re this stiff “thing.” To create each painting in this Surgical series:I draw my images on the plywood (mostly from imagination), using photos of myself loosely just for my facial features. I then paint with acrylics, adding materials from surgical procedures that I have had and then again paint into some of the areas. These are emotionally driven works, a self portrait about my body. I did not really desire to show these works until now as it is an intimate exploration of the hidden parts of me.