SEEKING: NYC-area women 21+ with inspiring stories for portrait painting series by Adesina:
Know a woman who fits? Send her this way!
LOGISTICS:
WHAT YOU’LL GET: Fine art photography shoot with professional hair, makeup & styling. Reference photo for highly detailed painting to be exhibited publicly.
TO APPLY: Submit via form: CLICK HERE>> (opens in new tab)
THE GOAL:
This is a collaborative, heart-centered project celebrating YOU. We’ll work together to ensure you feel comfortable and authentically represented. You choose whether to be credited by name or remain anonymous.
ALL TYPES NEEDED – IF YOU HAVE AN INSPIRING STORY, READ ON!
We are creating ROLE MODELS for the next generation of women, by reimagining historic female archetypes we don’t often see in today’s media, and inspiring young women to BE THEMSELVES, pursue their calling, and not follow the herd.
ARCHETYPES WE’RE CASTING:
NOTE: This isn’t about conventional beauty; it’s about celebrating the power and wisdom that comes from lived experience. I have deep respect for your story and am honored to help bring your archetype to life. – Adesina
Submission form: CLICK HERE>> (opens in new tab)
Good luck and we look forward to your submissions!
Usage:
The photos will be used as reference images for a series of paintings which will be shown publicly and made available for sale. You may or may not be recognizable in the final painting. Not every photographed subject will make it into a final painting. The photos themselves, your written or spoken story, as well as behind the scenes video taken at the shoot, may be displayed publicly in Adesina’s portfolio, social media, and website, for behind the scenes purposes, but will never be sold. Artist reserves the right to display and use the photos & your written story (you can be credited by name or remain anonymous — that is up to you) for the above mentioned purposes in perpetuity.
Look what just came out of the kiln! I’m always so excited when a new piece emerges, like a phoenix, from the flames. The transformation from impermanence to (semi) permanence reminds me of reincarnation, like a little death that actually brings eternal life.
I don’t mean to get spiritual, but in this case it’s particularly important, because this mini ceramic piece is a sculpture of a goddess. I was walking through the Greek and Roman galleries at the Met recently, and noting all of the impressive sculptures and busts of gods and goddesses, and thought, why can’t we create our own mythology? One that borrows from ancient traditions, but is tailored to what we need from our spiritual guides, in our own, modern lives?
With that in mind, here’s a short video with some of the steps I took to create her:
Now, there’s more to the story behind this piece, but I’ll save it for after the glaze is done. And by the way, the pearls are not part of the sculpture, but they used to belong to my grandmother, who is also an artist, and I when I saw them out of the corner of my eye as I was photographing my art, I just felt compelled to include them :).
Stay tuned for more,
Adesina <3
So pleased to share this mini head which I made as part of a larger series. As you can guess from this blog post title, I’ve taken some inspiration from Black Panther – the underglaze mimics Shuri’s face paint!
Check out a short video of this piece, below:
Making art is such a soothing and self-affirming process. Sculpting this piece in particular reminded me of my first sculptures as a child, because back then I was very much preoccupied with finish, and on this piece, I tested several underglaze combinations before I was satisfied.
There’s more to come with this piece and others, so bookmark its portfolio page for updates!
xo,
Adesina (She Opens the Way)
Hellooooo from the art studio 😀! I’ve been working hard and I wanted to share with you, a few behind the scenes clips, on a sculpture which is very nearly done – yay! 🙌💃
And for more videos and updates like this one, be sure to like and follow me on Facebook, at Facebook.com/ArtByAdesina
Hugs,
Adesina ❤❤❤
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¡Holaaaaa desde el estudio de arte 😀! Estoy trabajando mucho y quisiera compartir un video detrás de escena ¡sobre una escultura cual está casi completa! 🙌💃
Y para más videos y noticias como ésta, por favor siguenme en Facebook, en Facebook.com/ArtByAdesina
Abrazos,
Adesina ❤❤❤
Happy MerMay!
So I started this drawing last MerMay, and even though I signed it, I never really felt I had finished it. So since May has swung around again, I thought I’d take it out and add some more color!
Here is last year’s post — Hit the right arrow to see the original progress video 🙂
And here’s an update from today! Check out the deep blues and greens of the water – What do you think? Should I add some coral to the sea floor?
I hope you guys like the picture so far, and stay tuned for a finished version!
Love,
Adesina
While I mull over the final finish for my latest sculpture, Objectification (I), I thought I’d put together a video of the process, to give a little glimpse into the weeks of hard work that even a small sculpture can take.
From molding the clay on the armature, to covering it in several coats of plaster to make a cast, to letting that dry only to dig out the original clay, and fill it with more plaster, to finally chipping away at the mould to reveal the final sculpture underneath, it is quite a journey!
I hope you enjoy the video and the process, and I can’t wait to share the final reveal when her patina is done.
(Read more about the meaning of this sculpture, here»)
Love,
Adesina
Adesina poses in the studio with her sculpture Objectification I
Hello my loves,
As Women’s History Month comes to a close, I wanted to share one of my recent sculptures, focused on the female form, which is currently drying in my studio & awaiting a coat of varnish and a patina: “Objectification (I).”
If you have a moment, here is her story:
In the aftermath of the #MeToo movement earlier this year, I’ve been thinking a lot about what it means to be a woman, in a culture where sexual predation still occurs, yet somehow has been ignored in certain sectors, for so very long. Especially since I have been working in the entertainment industry as a television host for the past 13 years, and even having been introduced to the “casting couch” myself (to which I said “No thank you, I’ll pass” lol), the entire movement hit very close to home.
Objectification I sculpture by artist Adesina – legs, feet and face only.
This sculpture, a nude woman, her face neatly removed as if through a futuristic, bloodless surgery, and placed by her feet, is not so much about sexual assault in and of itself, as much as it’s about the erasure of women’s identities, in the midst of all these accusations and public outcry. It’s about how it feels to be exposed to the world, with one’s story of sexual abuse or harassment, and being made into just one of a huge number of interchangeable women – angry women, mistreated women, scared women, women who were in the wrong place at the wrong time, or women labeled as just plain stupid, or manipulative even, for having been in these situations in the first place, and for either disclosing, or not disclosing, after the fact (and in many cases – you are wrong no matter which you choose).
It’s the objectification not of the body, but of the mind & of the soul, which leaves one naked and alone, even as we stand strong, and our voices rise together; so that we remain faceless, in the aftermath of a movement that we put so much hope into, and of which we have yet to see what the far-reaching outcomes will be.
Once the sculpture is completely dried and a patina applied, I will post more about her, with some video of the process, which if you have ever casted a clay sculpture in plaster, you know is quite an ordeal hehe!
Thank you so much for reading, and if you’d like to place a bid on this piece before it’s done (thus securing her for yourself in advance) please contact me here.
Complete sculpture – Objectification I – by Adesina.
Much love,
Adesina xo