Bianca Godden
Artist Statement
Before my education in art history, the only Latina artist I knew of was Frida Kahlo. Though she was married to the famous Diego Rivera, she surpassed her husband’s fame. Her self-portraits were a warm welcome, showing me that I could find a place in the art world.
Along with seeking but not often finding this place in art for myself, I crave the idyllic romanticism in Renaissance and pre-Raphaelite paintings. I am often drawn to mythological depictions of goddesses and nymphs who are simultaneously powerful, playful, and soft. This is reflected through their connection to nature, and these paintings elevate their beauty by joining landscape with figure. As much as I admire these mythological scenes, someone is missing: me.
The painters that I look up to are overwhelmingly male; the women in their paintings are either white or exoticized. There are plenty of depictions of women through the male perspective, but there are far fewer well-known women artists who paint themselves as they would like to be represented. By creating new landscapes inspired by paintings of arcadian scenes and adding multiple self-portraits within them, I begin to fill in the gap where women like myself have been left out. Like Kahlo before me, I take full control of the creative process by being both the subject and the artist.