Holly Greenfield - Fine Artist
Artist Statement
Holly Greenfield’s work explores the idea of disguise and the different ways we try to exploit this. Her portrait work, which mainly consists of oil paintings or charcoal, portrays an interesting approach towards disguise and she looks at the extent people will go to change themselves.
Her collaged work was a springboard to her exploring this idea and the eeriness of her paintings and drawings are what makes you question society. Holly looks at the effects stereotypes and the pressure of society has on women and what we can do to stop this. Her work almost shows how ridiculous it is that these old-fashioned views are still imbedded within society today.
Holly’s work has taken a more eerie path as of recently. She has strayed away from painting and is experimenting with charcoal. Her charcoal work seems more enticing and makes you ask questions compared to her previous collage work.
The work she creates reveals people that are hiding who they are, and she brings up the question how far will you go to disguise yourself? We go on this disguise journey with Holly as we see her work develop and change.
More about my work
I mainly use oil paints and paint from the collages I have created with magazines and newspapers. I use a mixture of myself and models from online. I use model photos to represent the idealistic way of looking. The amount of pressure models go through to stay a certain size and to look a certain way is huge. With my work, I show how everyone has insecurities that they want to hide not just the normal people you see on the street.
On the other hand, I do also use myself as a subject. I have fallen into the trap of using filters and trying to look a certain way by consuming the stereotype. Most of this comes under the male gaze and how in society how men view women is very apparent and effects not only our social life but employment and so on.
I have researched the male gaze and it is interesting how it plays a huge part in our life. Not only this, but the stereotypes that have been pinned onto women for many years have barely changed. I can appreciate we as women definitely have a better life than years ago but it is prominent that we are still struggling. These conservative views of women look down on us and are only seen as property.
With my work, I look at this and almost compare how the standards for women has not changed significantly from years ago.
The male gaze does also affect men and I do use male subjects in my artwork but it is majority women. Mainly because I can relate to them and use my own experiences within my work to have a more personal feel. My journey with disguise is apparent through my work and I will continue to experiment with it.