Art / womxn
Body empowerment and expressing female sexuality
A new art project is a a way of expressing sexuality and embracing the feeling of body empowerment.
Ruth Wormington, a recent graduate from the University of Bristol, has started Ru’s Nudes on Instragram to promote body positivity through drawing and painting naked portraits of womxn*.
Ruth set up Ru’s Nudes to exhibit her work and offer commissions, but has developed the account into a safe space for women and non-binary people to requested artwork of themselves in the nude.
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“Through customer testimonials and my own discoveries, this project has developed into something which feels really important to me,” says the 22-year-old.
“Those who have requested pics have commented on how they have found even the act of taking nude photographs really empowering, and it’s something that they had never considered doing or felt brave enough to do prior to seeing my page.”
Ruth Wormington working on the commissions. Photo: Ruth Wormington
Ruth, who attend an online life drawing class in mid-May and found she enjoyed the process, decided to create her own “powerful” and “raw” art.
The project has made the artist, who lives on Gloucester Road, re-evaluate womxn’s sexuality.
“It made me really think about the stigmas around female sexuality in society that has led to fears around female sexuality expression,” she says.
“Through this thought process, I remembered many occasions I have been stigmatised for my own sexuality expression and sexual behaviour and in trying to trace it back it’s wild how integrated these views are into society, such as sex education omitting any mention of female sexuality and pejorative gendered language.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/CBG1VBWBvsL/
It was important to Ruth that all womxn were included, saying: “I feel this is a platform to celebrate bodies and promote self-love, and this feels hypocritical and incomplete without inclusivity and acknowledgement of all womxn.”
She hopes to expand the project and donate 15 per cent of all money from commissions to a gender-inclusive sexual abuse charity.
The artworks have already helped many reclaim their bodies after difficult and traumatic experiences such as eating disorders and sexual assault.
Ruth adds: “I feel the power of these paintings is found in portraying people’s real bodies as the pieces of art that they are.”
*those identifying as women or non-binary
Main image: Ruth Wormington
Read more: Womxn-only camera club provides a safe space to learn photography skills
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