Women send artist selfies so she can paint their 'bitchy resting faces'
A Vancouver artist was tired of men telling her to smile. So she decided to do something about it.
Last week, a group show called "Strong Female Character" started at the Hot Art Wet City gallery. It features the art of Mandy Tsung, who started her "Bitchy Resting Face Project" in 2015, in which she painted portraits of women who sent her selfies.
"All women know how infuriating it is if someone tells you to smile when your face is simply relaxed," she wrote on her blog when she started the project. "This is the most natural face a woman can make; her most honest expression, and yet it is so unsettling that strangers feel the need to do something to stop it. Perhaps it's because it makes it hard for them to enjoy her, to objectify her."
She added, "By depicting women as we are naturally, I hope to erase the shame and negativity that we feel about simply being ourselves."
You can check out her art online or stop by the Vancouver gallery through Jan. 28.
[h/t] CBC Arts
Keith Wagstaff is an assistant editor at Mashable and a terrible Settlers of Catan player. He has written for TIME, The Wall Street Journal Magazine, NBC News, The Village Voice, VICE, GQ and New York Magazine, among many other reputable and not-so-reputable publications. After nearly a decade in New York City, he now lives in his native Los Angeles.
