Oliver - Week 8 - My response to Monica Kim Garza

I’ve always wondered why anyone can’t wear heels while they work out. In the Monica Kim Garza painting below of an unknown name the answer is found to be- Hell yes, you can wear heels for anything. It’s been so interesting to read the responses to Garza. She is also the most responded to artist of the first presentation round and to me that is really something. It’s something because out of all the artist Garza seemed to be taking the most risk. In an interview with Material Magazine, Garza says, “ I just never imagined clothes. I thought about the beautiful shape of the bodies.” This idea of the naked body as art seems to be as old as art, but Garza pushes that play into a fabulous good time. That word play is a word I see in all the art that I have seen from Garza. She is playing with body image and this idea of nakedness as natural in a casual sense instead of a forced, structured sense and I believe this is why the class had such a response.

Everything in the painting below is warm. The orange space, the warm pink of the heels, and the familiarity of the figure is warm and non-judgmental. Even still this is a woman that means business. She has her hair up and her nails done and she is going to do this damn workout in her own time and her own way with a splash of underwear and definitely no bra. The position of her body also goes right in accordance with the rest of this display of joy and fun. The flowers and the greenery then just add to this playful good time. This painting, this woman, and it’s painter are all not taking themselves too seriously and in that space so much can be conveyed that is important. In that space all sort of positive energy flow.