Patricia Barefoot

Shapeshifters: Amid

In my artwork, I make use of my technical skill to explore women’s societal and stereotypical roles throughout history. I take on an age-old subject, speculating about what it means to live out one’s life in a female body.

Drawings and gouache paintings often deal with the over-extension of women in domestic and exterior spaces, nature as false comfort, “home” as false comfort, and the investigation of self. Even in the modern world, the meaning of femininity is often misinterpreted. My work is about the distortion of the notion of “femaleness” and the subsequent objectification and manipulation of the female image.

Many of my figure drawings of non-idealized women’s bodies show a transparency so that we can “see through” to the structures beneath, the skeletal “permanence,” and our dependence and reliance upon this physical structure. So much of our existence depends upon our exterior, physical form.

In the series “Healing Hands,” the focus is on the strength and power of women in the health care industry.

Healing Hands: Kelly

Entrusting