This article in 614 Magazine was written about my work in March of 2010. I have included the text from the article below.
Evocative Art Invokes Ensler
Glaringly bright and larger-than-life women romp across the walls of Monica Rose Song’s studio, giant women with powerful faces, gaudy and pornographic and strong. Asymmetric canvases break up the lines of the room and walls upon which they are hung so that, rather than merely displaying the works, the space seems more invaded or even conquered.
“I want to do really large paintings because I’ve been feeling really claustrophobic working so small,” she said. “They are all different shapes, so there is this irregularity, so no two canvases are the same – just like the women.”
The women are sexual and assertive, from flashing a man from across the room to lounging seductively in lacy lingerie, or a racy take on the Byzantine Madonna, snapping the head off her holy Barbie-doll child.
The men, when present in Song’s paintings, play a weak role, even in dominant positions, such as the plastic-skinned monks in the Madonna paintings; they look on impotently as the Madonna snaps the head off her child, oblivious to the wills and desires of the males in the next panel.
“I kind of abuse the men in this series, a little bit,” she said with a smirk, adding that the prose works of authors such as Eve Ensler and Nancy Friday had led her to study themes like feminine control and empowerment.
While Song’s paintings are overt depictions of sexuality and taboo, her youthfulness and exuberant style forces the viewer to give her every possible benefit of the doubt- and the girls not only have all the control, they get to have all the fun, too.
-DS Lewis
