Good Morning! To start this lovely Sunday off I am so happy to share with you an interview here on The Creative Body with the amazing creator and artist Rebecca Harte. Rebecca talks about how she started to learn and educate herself about fat acceptance, the origins of body positivity and how she uses her platform to centre people of these movements. Check out her soft and ethereal illustrations and read the interview below.
Tell us about yourself & your practice? (please include your pronouns)
I'm Rebecca (She/her), an Irish artist based in the UK. I moved from Northern Ireland to study BA Fine Art at the University of Chichester where my practice was performance based, exploring my own body and experiences. After graduating in 2019 it took almost a year before I began creating any art again. In March of 2020 the UK went into lockdown and I came across online life drawing classes on Instagram. I originally joined Body Confidence's online sessions (IG @bodyconfidence) and the sheer energy of these sessions left me feeling so inspired. I didn't feel under pressure to create something worthy of public consumption which allowed me to actually enjoy what I was doing. I came across Fat Life Drawing (IG @fatlifedrawing) not long after which inspired me in a different way. Body Confidence sessions are often fast paced, themed and have incredibly dynamic poses from an experienced model and artist. Fat Life Drawing is softer, the models are often amateur and the poses tend to be longer. Even attending these two classes allows me to explore so many different forms, body types and energies and they've both opened my eyes to writing, thoughts and representations of bodies in the media. The majority of my drawings are quite soft in shades of red, pinks and purples. There tends to be a strong sense of femininity from the Fat Life Drawing models which contrast the often-masculine energies from the Body Confidence sessions. Drawing from my experience with performance, I try to focus on being present and really observing the model's body in a space, an interesting concept since the sessions are online and not in person.
2. What inspires your art form?
My art is definitely inspired by the people I'm drawing. I like to stick to a particular colour palette but I try to let the model lead the colour choices and mark making within that. I enjoy creating bolder outlines in my work but this can change depending on who I am representing. I have some drawings that are so soft and delicate that the model becomes this ethereal being. Each model has brought something very different to my practice whether it's their physical body, a charity they are raising money for, the props or environment they're modelling in or even the songs they have added to the playlist.
Social Icons