While in Gard school I had chosen to do a series of life sized nude figure studies and being influenced by the hyper realism of Ron Mueck I wanted to make my works as reflective of real life as possible catering all of the flaws as well as all the beauty that is the human form. The model for “Onslaught” was coincidentally the same model as another work called “Coy/Cunt”
The idea for Onslaught was a muscular woman battling against an unknown force or assailant. The original composition was a full figured form but in the post photography stage I recognized that a sever cropping of the image was much more dramatic and mysterious. The viewer is left to imagine what is just off frame to the right. Is the woman deflecting the light, the wind, a strangers blow? That is what creates the conversation between the work and the viewer.
I decided to create this work large, much larger than any drawing I had attempted to date and the nature of the median of Graphite on Mylar was also a first at this dimension.
