By: Heather Bien
Boody is thrilled to kick off a new partnership in 2020; we’re working with uber-talented fine artists to bring Boody to life visually. Each artist is interpreting Boody in their own distinctive style and we’re going to introduce you to the artists and their stories here on the Boody blog.
You may have seen Caren Ginsberg’s work on the Boody Instagram. She’s a California-based artist known for her raw, textural style and her interpretations of Boody feature that signature vulnerability, as well as a striking sense of movement –– it’s as if you can see the pieces dancing off the page.
Get to Know the Artist: Caren Ginsberg
Ginsberg has been creating art for as long as she can remember and, from the time she was a child, she was experimenting with color and mark-making. As an adult, she spent time in Boston, New York, and, in her last job before pursuing art full-time, she found herself working for Vogue in California (a fitting “day” job for someone brimming with creative passion!).
After marriage and a move took her to North Carolina, Ginsberg dove into creating art. She originally pursued traditional charcoal and pencil portraiture. Then, over the years, as her work evolved and matured, she found herself embracing the process and the journey of art rather than focusing on the end product. She abandoned the rigidity of traditional portraits and let herself loose on the canvas, immersing her creativity in wild, reckless color.
Ginsberg’s Pursuit of Portraying Humanity
One theme that has remained a constant throughout her artistic journey is her focus on people. She’s always been drawn to photography and travel, choosing to study not only the landscapes, but the people around her. From a quirky nose to an elegant stature, it’s the differences from one person to another that have her enamored with capturing humanity. And, as her style has become looser and more experimental, she’s found herself free to capture interpretive portraiture, focusing on the emotion, movement, and art of a being, rather than a simple likeness.
In that pursuit of portraying humanity, Ginsberg has created a collection of female portraits often focusing on iconic names and captivating faces. This series started while she and her husband sat in a New York City restaurant, Raul’s, discussing creative, powerful women throughout the decades. Never one to turn down the chance to sketch, Ginsberg picked up a crayon and began scrawling down the names of these women across the paper table covering. And, it struck her, “Yes! I want to paint these women!” The series now includes portraits ranging from Twiggy to Eartha Kitt.
Her Approach to Creating Art
Throughout Ginsberg’s portfolio of work, you’ll see a controlled chaos. There’s fast, quick movement –– you can imagine the artist’s hand whipping across the canvas. In her work, she puts on music, finds herself in a meditative state, and watches what unfolds on the canvas.
One stroke leads to the next. It’s a whirlwind of mark-making, paint-slinging, and seeing what happens. She gets out of her own way to let her own creativity lead her. Of course, she has color palettes and mediums that return to her again and again like old friends, but her best work is a result of experimentation and pushing her own boundaries. Ginsberg views the creation of art as pulling back the layers and letting your own visceral response flow onto the canvas.
Ginsberg’s Pieces for Boody
In keeping with her raw style and bold, emotional strokes, Ginsberg looked to create meaningful pieces that were representative enough to resemble Boody’s line, but with her signature artistic movement. Her work focuses on the humanity that inhabits these pieces –– you see the Boody bras and bamboo underwear, but your focus is on the person that’s given life within them through circular shapes and curvilinear lines. These are loose representations with texture, movement, pattern, and mark-making. You look at these works and imagine the person dancing right off the page –– because, at the end of the day, it’s the person within the Boody that matters.
