| I am in love with drawing, and I use my seductive technique to take aim at the way sexuality and nature is fetishized. My hybrid humanoid drawings tweak expectations of what is “natural” and “synthetic” about corporeality, desire, and the natural world. The intersection of opposing sensibilities activates my work; I craft images that are simultaneously erotic and humorous, beautiful and repulsive. My best drawings combine the heat of erotic art, with the cold precision of medical illustration. Although I am clearly operating in the realm of fantasy, I use observation-based drawing and hyperrealist technique to suspend viewers’ disbelief, and to create images that are surreal and suggestive. Lick Line is an ongoing series of disembodied mouths floating in space. We see the mouth and tongue all the time; yet, they are very private and intimate. Rendered in exacting detail, the tongues protrude and beckon viewers to come close. |  |
Julia Randall
I am in love with drawing, and I use my seductive technique to take aim at the way sexuality and nature is fetishized. My hybrid humanoid drawings tweak expectations of what is “natural” and “synthetic” about corporeality, desire, and the natural world. The intersection of opposing sensibilities activates my work; I craft images that are simultaneously erotic and humorous, beautiful and repulsive. My best drawings combine the heat of erotic art, with the cold precision of medical illustration. Although I am clearly operating in the realm of fantasy, I use observation-based drawing and hyperrealist technique to suspend viewers’ disbelief, and to create images that are surreal and suggestive.
Lick Line is an ongoing series of disembodied mouths floating in space. We see the mouth and tongue all the time; yet, they are very private and intimate. Rendered in exacting detail, the tongues protrude and beckon viewers to come close. Saliva bubbles reflect back viewers’ space, thus including them in the narrative. The glistening, barely visible surface of the spit bubble is the moist skin that separates us from the mouth’s cavity, which punctures the picture plane, and acts as a portal to deep space. In the Lures series, the mouth is on the move; it is simultaneously ferocious and tender. The Lures series aims to capture the sexual signaling of whispering, and the visceral feeling of biting and kissing.
In Up!, I play the role of the erotic, nutty professor and humorously tweak the relationship between objects and desire. I create the image of my fantasy boy-toy, a Frankenstein, which has been redesigned for human consumption and pleasure. A headless Ken doll torso is cobbled with the lower body of an adolescent boy; he sits with outstretched arms to the viewer, beckoning like a lover and a child.
Desire is manifested in a more mysterious tone in Popped. A female figure is reflected in a pool of water where floats what appears to be a lifelike doll’s head. The relationship between the two characters is ambiguous, and allows viewers to wonder if the head is a boy, a toy, or a mannequin? Is it a plaything or a victim? Is he sleeping, dead, or post-orgasmic? The open-ended narrative hints at the confounding emotional layers that exist between people, and echoes the enigmatic nature of love, lust, and loss.
