Sometimes, Painting Is The Best Revenge

Allison Anderson

I am inspired by women who have blazed their own path for good or bad. Women who have refused to shut up at the mercy of powerful men. I paint women who ultimately embrace being called a “FUCKING BITCH.” Women like Monica Lewinsky, Dr. Christine Blasey Ford and Stormy Daniels who define their own unique version of feminism by “flipping the script.” Women who are considered to be “monsters” and “snakes.” To color in their portraits and animations is another way of painting myself as strong as them. It is as if I were transported back to the 90’s coloring at my grandparents coffee table while watching OJ Simpson driving his white Bronco down the 91 freeway from the cops.

Painting Harvey Weinstein and Bill Clinton is another way of identifying traits of predatory behavior. It allows me to paint the predator who prayed on me without having to paint his actual face. The prevalent use of hot pink represents me RECLAIMING my dark past by representing current movements like Me Too with this color. The bringing together of politics, abstraction and the unconscious allows viewers to think about these ideas in complex ways; the personal is political. Painting is another way to tell my story and to take justice back on my own terms.