Sally Brown
TRIBUTE TO MOTHER EARTH 4
IMAGE DESCRIPTION: This body print includes circles and flecks of paint in turquoise, pink, purple, orange, and grey. Several circles are slightly wider than tall and may be elbow or knee prints.
TRIBUTE TO MOTHER EARTH 5
IMAGE DESCRIPTION: This is another abstract print in the similar colors. Here, all of the circles join together to make one abstract organic shape. The shape resembles be an animal with large ears, a yellow-brown head (with turquoise flecks for eyes and a green smear for a mouth), and a similarly-sized body. The flecks of paint seem to form part of the background in this image.
TRIBUTE TO BRIGMAN I BELONG
IMAGE DESCRIPTION: Turquoise brushstrokes form a horizontal but meandering composition across the page. The composition resembles a river.
TRIBUTE TO GREEN
IMAGE DESCRIPTION: Brushstrokes in several shades of green form an oval or a very abstract outline of a face with large ears.
BOTANICAL TRIBUTE 3
IMAGE DESCRIPTION: A swirl of turquoise, pink, purple, and orange paint appears at the bottom of an image on a gray paper background. The top of the paper includes real leaves, petals, and flower heads affixed to the paper and covered in paint of the same colors.
BOTANICAL TRIBUTE 4
IMAGE DESCRIPTION: This image centers on an abstract shape in orange, purple, pink, and turquoise. The shape shows one negative space made by three leaves and one negative space made with a flower head. The three leaves and flowerhead (both covered in paint) are affixed to the paper elsewhere. The background is gray paper covered in yellow, orange, and turquoise flecks of color.
BOTANICAL TRIBUTE 7
IMAGE DESCRIPTION: This central image is made with looser strokes and primarily in pink and orange. The blank outline of a flower head and stem appear in the most solid part of the painted design. The flower head and stem appear (separately and covered in orange paint) elsewhere on the paper. A leaf or string of seeds is also affixed to the page. The background is gray paper with flecks of pink and orange paint.
PROCESS
IMAGE DESCRIPTION: Sally Brown is a blonde woman with short hair and several tattoos. She sits naked (legs crossed and breasts strategically covered) in the front hallway of her house. There is paint on her torso. She is surrounded by a dropcloth, bottles of paint, abstract painted images on paper, and stems or petals. The hallway has blue walls, and there are stairs and an exercise machine behind her.
Artist statement:
Inspired by Yves Klein’s Anthropometries (1960), I create body prints alternatively with feminist intent, as director, artist and model, each dedicated to a woman artist in abstract, expressive forms reminiscent of inkblot tests. Using my body, my work initiates conversations on gender and body image, as well as my role as mother. I recognize similar inquiries [cries] from other (women) artists and that my frustrations and expressions are not unique. I developed this series of tributes to Mother Earth, with the physicality and femininity of including flowers and leaves, to honor, admire and reflect on women's role in the cycle of life. “Mother” also references my role as mom, as I work through my ever changing body, perspective, world around me.