Kate Ruth
Kate Ruth
I’ve always loved that line from Who Framed Roger Rabbit when Jessica Rabbit says "I’m not bad, I’m just drawn that way." That’s how I feel about the girls in my drawings.
I like to think of them as nice girls, the good girl from next door that just happens to be naked on the page just for you. I’ve always liked to draw and I’ve always loved drawing women. I can remember, as a young girl, the first thing I’d do when I got a new coloring book is go through and color in all the girls’ lips with my brightest pink felt tip pen.
I always loved the simple lines that seemed to convey so much by using so little. I think that’s why I chose to do my own "adult" coloring in books, to create my own images to give color to. I like to draw girls from old men’s magazines, girls from the 60s and 70s. I love the simple soft focus look of photos of girls from that era, the simplified features and the soft colors. That’s what I try to get across with my simple line drawings; for me it’s far more of a turn-on than having it all out there. I don’t want to see every bump and crease; often I think an image can be made to look more beautiful by what’s not shown.
That’s not to say I’m some prude with a "less is more" philosophy, but I do think that often showing a little can be much hotter than showing a lot. I love the carefree manner that the women from this time seem to have about them; they are often laughing and look comfortable–or at least natural–they’re not stretched out in awkward poses, with both legs behind their head, all pouty lips and dead eyes, like so many of the images you see today. They seem to be nice girls, the kind of girls you know from around the block, but at ease with their bodies.
I recently had an exhibition in LA where I painted 135 different girls, each one named after someone I know–girls I went to school with, girls I got into trouble with, my sister, my grandmothers. Each girl had her own personality; they appeared in various forms of undress, some fully clothed, others stark naked and in all shapes and sizes, but I think they all shared a certain level of eroticism.
I guess that’s what I’m trying to say: I don’t find the bleach blonde, silicone-filled girls of today all that hot; to me, real is so much hotter. I don’t like the new sort of faceless girls in porn, the fake personalities with fake tits and labia reconstruction. I find girls that look comfortable, natural and fun the hottest. I believe that reality is hotter than so-called perfection. I hope that’s how the girls in my drawings come across, sexy and real.
