Sweet Thing, Mother of Jesus
April 2, 2010
Sweet Thing, Mother of Jesus, Tatyana Fazlalizadeh, Oil on Canvas, 2010
Throughout history there has been a forced duality on women’s sexuality: saintly, sexlessness or, over-sexed harlot. Women are still having their sexuality judged as either prudish or whorish. This painting is my expression of that dualism. I chose to present the woman figure as “Mother Mary” because the deification of a woman dehumanizes her just much as the demonization of a woman – like, “Sweet Thing”, the prostitute character in Nina Simone’s “Four Women”. Women should be perceived as human, not saints or whores.
