Angela

I am a young self taught painter and writer . I am not exceptional in the classic tech side of the word but I do paint and write from the heart. A lot of my work is based around class issues such as rape homelessness child prositution , rape , gun crime all of which effect the lowerclasses living in Britain today. My painting and writing is often more violent and harder like a man ie more male than female in its aggression or subjects tackled.Not to say all women are chick flick holding hands , shoes and shopping loving sterotypes there are a few of us out there who do things for ourselves and are more tom boy but as for pouting just being pretty or needing a man for validation I am not that type of girly girl. My attitudes towards life and sex are often also more masculine and I am a woman in all aspects of my life whom knows her own mind and is not scared to go out grab life by the balls and get what I want.A woman who is not scared of judgement and holds now shame in my freedom of self expression. Besides the obvious I would have liked to been born a MAN its true I probly would have liked to have fully indulged my libertine tendencies and have been born in 1800 France around the time of Maupassent , de sade , Baudelaire and Rimbaud ,it would have been great to have drank absinthe , got rat arsed and have hanged out with them. Another person who I think I could have related to was the great eccentric old fart a real anarchist with the balls to stand up againest convention or the system and weirdo William Burroughs I would like to meet other weirdos like myself but today their pretty hard to find out there who don't judge me or runaway from me like most people do espically MEN. I think that its a shame that I am a writer and painter in 2008 in prudy London only having as my contempories a load of plastic celebrities or artists obsessed with issues like consumer culture etc all throwaway without substance with nothing valid to say for themselves and often out there alone with nobody to relate to doing my thing.Bacon would have also made a ideal drinking partner for me in his love for sex and violence and the fact he had a untamed animal go fuck yourself quality to his paintings plus he was free fearless in his quest expression of TRUTH in his character making him a kindred spirit to myself. Its true I would have liked to have been born in a time without the current obsession with fame when making a beautiful play , painting or writing a beautiful book with something valid to say that would last mattered. My stuff also tackles subject matters such as gender roles as well as class and middle and upperclass double standards within it but most of all I feel the need to express the pain of living today. I would say I am probly the closest to somebody like for example De sade in my work which is not totally erotic but is more about the sexual mindset between human intraction etc. I wrote my first short novel cunt camp aged twenty two about female roles in society today , a society where womens sole purpose was indeed apperance and sex, it also included valid observations of lowerclass society today and is in my blog section. I have written over thirty short stories also and plays that with my paintings not that will probly its a shame never see the light of day in my lifetime . As I have already not been able to show my work with the Art and writing at present being banned in and around London in even so called liberated two thousand and eight. Article on Art
Sex art show next to kids’ workshop
By Mike Greenshields A SEXUALLY explicit art exhibition which has been banned from 80 galleries in London is on display under the same roof as a children’s workshop in Slough.Entitled ‘Uncensored’, the graphic work by a former drug addict covers social issues including rape, homelessness, child prostitution, drug addiction and sexual abuse. The art, which has strong sexual content and offensive titles, is on display at Gallery 435, in Montrose Avenue next to a room where youngsters meet for an art workshop. One parent was so offended by the exhibition he threatened to report it to the police. Another, a father of two who saw the display said: “I think this art work is nothing more than pornography and was created purely for shock value. It is completely inappropriate to have works such as a kid’s slide and a dolls’ house covered in pornographic images with needles and condoms. “If a child found access to the room they would naturally want to play with what they think are toys and would be exposed to these hazards. “The paintings are very offensive too. They are named using words that most people never use in everyday language. One thing I know for sure, there is no way I would want my children anywhere near this exhibition.” Gallery Founder Zoe Hatch defended her decision to run the exhibition and workshop side-by-side. She said: “Gallery 435 treats public complaints very seriously. It is our opinion that appropriate safeguards were and remain in place to ensure the protection of any children. “The gallery adopted best practices in line with current guidelines from other galleries regarding exhibiting controversial artwork and explicit imagery. Written and verbal warnings were given to anyone entering the exhibition and safeguards were made to ensure the children could not enter the exhibition by mistake.” Angela Edwards, the 29-year-old artist, insists her work is relevant and not for shock value. She said: “My work reflects the damaged life of British lower class society. It might not be pretty but it is reality and too many people want to avoid the subject because it is taboo. 'I moved to London when I was 16 and experienced this lifestyle first-hand when I became addicted to crack and heroin and slept rough on the streets for eight years. People are quite happy to raise issues on the hardships in Iraq and Africa, but when the problem lies closer to home they choose to stay clear of it.” Quote head curator gallery 435 Zoe Hatch on my work
www.gallery435.com
Edwards asks us to re-examine the neglected and taboo issues of 21st century Britain.Tackling such hard hitting social issues as rape, homelessness, child prostitution, drug addiction, gun culture and poverty head on, Edwards' work offers us a unique insight into the world of the poverty-stricken, abused and violated. Working mainly with oil on canvas, her grotesque and nightmarish images, along with her bold and dynamic brushwork, are reminiscent of the work of Francis Bacon.Edwards' strong sense of humour is never far from the surface of her work however, lending balance to the darker elements of the paintings. She does not force us to form an opinion about the issues she is exploring, but feels strongly that we should be able to explore these taboo subjects within our society. She talks of the conceptual work of The Chapman Brothers and the surreal work of Sarah Lucas as the "natural brother and sister to her art in terms of humour and content".Unafraid to reveal her feminist principles and her ambivalent feelings towards sexual identity, violence and passion, Edwards purges personal experiences and eyewitness encounters from her psyche. Expressing herself with the uncensored honesty of a child, she brings a raw energy to her work, which is both shocking and mesmerising.Edwards tells us:"Through my art I often encapsulate my own private moments and hope to use painting as a form of attack to change certain unequal aspects of society and to educate."New Work
For my new work I am working on a set of paintings based on prints by Japanese master Yoshitoshi.
Like Bacons the Pope I will be painting several versions based upon his twenty eight violent homcidal acts set only my versions will instead of physical violence reflect the violence of Breast cancer or diease .My paintings will deal with brutality , defeminisation , desexualisation , pain bravery and violence tackling all from a female prospective.I will dedicate this set to my mother who has suffered with the diease .Again this set will like most of my other paintings deal with sensation and emotional imagery rather than literal or biological elements.
On Yoshitoshi
Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (1839 - June 9, 1892) (Japanese: 月岡 芳年; also named Taiso Yoshitoshi 大蘇 芳年) was a Japanese artist. He is widely recognized as the last great master of Ukiyo-e, a type of Japanese woodblock printing. He is additionally regarded as one of the form's greatest innovators. His career spanned two eras – the last years of feudal Japan, and the first years of modern Japan following the Meiji Restoration. Like many Japanese, Yoshitoshi was interested in new things from the rest of the world, but over time he became increasingly concerned with the loss of many outstanding aspects of traditional Japanese culture, among them traditional woodblock printing. By the end of his career, Yoshitoshi was in an almost single-handed struggle against time and technology. As he worked on in the old manner, Japan was adopting Western mass reproduction methods like photography and lithography. Nonetheless, in a Japan that was turning away from its own past, he almost singlehandedly managed to push the traditional Japanese woodblock print to a new level, before it effectively died with him. His life is perhaps best summed up by John Stevenson:Yoshitoshi's courage, vision and force of character gave ukiyo-e another generation of life, and illuminated it with one last burst of glory. —John Stevenson, Yoshitoshi's One Hundred Aspects of the Moon, 1992 His reputation has only continued to grow, both in the West, and among younger Japanese, and he is now almost universally recognized as the greatest Japanese artist of his era.