Spray paint is often associated with male artists yet the technology of aerosol sprays features prominently in female beauty rituals and domestic routines. In this project, I explore the material and visual resonances between spray paint (air brush and digital spray transparent layering) on canvas and paper and its use in sunless tanning, which is a common practice within contemporary and more specifically beach communities. I am interested in spray tanning as a noninvasive form of modification that situates the body as a canvas—a site of aesthetic intervention. Tanning stickers are a mode of negative patternmaking or tattooing; by revealing the skin color prior to the treatment, they acquire shape due to the absence of chemicals. In my paintings, I use spray paint and stencils—the tools and visual vocabulary of sunless tanning—to layer patterns onto the canvas and achieve subtle color gradations and fading effects. Approaching the painterly surface as a skin, I consider how shared images, such as a palm tree or the lips, express personality even if this presentation of character is temporary and artificial. This project is a continuation of the themes found throughout my multi-media practice, which includes installations, performance, printmaking and painting. Activating the materiality of spray paint and its cultural applications, I consider the body as a site of pleasure, pain, and identity while highlighting often overlooked forms of women’s self-fashioning and labor.
