My disability awareness design “Ich bin zu sexy für meine high (w)heels” (I’m too sexy for my high (w)heels) won the first price in the Zazzle Germany Humor T-Shirt Design Contest!
The same design exists in English and Spanish:
If you wish to buy this design on t-shirt, mug, bag or other, just click on the picture.
Some reading:
Since a couple of weeks, I’ve been working on this new image in vintage look, exploring the theme of old age and memory loss:
Growing old is a wonderful thing by Ina Mar, 2009, mixed media
Here is the text embedded in the background of the artwork:
If I ever die, I wish to die of love, for example to die suffering of desire or be a victim of a crime of passion. It’s terrible to die of any other cause. Imagine dying of a sickness or just from old age!
Listen, I think I am growing younger every day. I am becoming smaller, losing weight, losing my hair, my skin is now soft like that of a baby. Touch it! See? It’s so soft! I believe I will soon be your age again. As soon as I am young again, I can take you to the end of the world. We’ll start a completely new life together. I am really sorry I didn’t remember your name. But the warmth of your hands is familiar to me. I am sure I have loved you passionately in the past.
Did you know that it’s possible to fall in love with the same person more than once in one life? Age gives you that strength by taking away memory. Loss of memory brings the freshness of rediscovery. I am now able to fall in love with you again and again. (Text: Ina Mar)
Some of my layers:
Tiger Dream by Ina Mar, 2009, mixed media (photo, drawing, collage, text), series surREALITIES
The “Tiger Dream” is an atypical erotic encounter between a tiger and a young boy.
It’s the description of a dream situation: A girl dreams of a boy lying on her bed, his head slightly leaned to the back, showing his uncovered neck. The girl’s head transforms into a tiger head. She carefully takes his neck into her mouth. She does not bite him or hurt him.
The tiger’s spoken words (”Is that you lying on my bed? I promise not to hurt you.”) are written over his head while the boy’s intime thoughts (”It would be nice to be sexually abused by you.”) are written inside his head.
There is also a sleeping child inside the boy’s head (reference to Egon Schiele’s “Blind Mother”, 1914) and the words “still a kid deep in his soul”, alluding to innocence.
I wish to create a contrast between innocence and sexual pleasure (two facets of the boy) as well as gentleness and violence (two facets of the tiger).
Here’s a detail of the artwork:
Tiger Dream by Ina Mar, detail
The palette contains “agressive”, “unrealistic” colours (blood red, deep orange, black and saturated yellow), that allude to the dream world.
The size of the original is 19.7 in x 15.7 in (50×40cm).
The techniques used are digital photo, pencil drawing, photocopy, collage, digital manipulation.
Series: surREALITIES
Where to buy it: You can buy a reproduction of “Tiger Dream” on Imagekind.
Hello, long time without updates…
I am currently working on some artworks for my new series “surREALITIES“. It will be a series of surrealistic/fantasy images using mixed media, namely a mixture of photography, drawing, scanned painting, photocopy, scanned objects, as well as texts or poems I’ve written. I am trying to mix not only media but also the mind conditions: realities, remembrances, dreams, sensations are mixed with daydreams, trances, virtualities and visualisations, till the limits between them are blurred. The images and accompanying texts have the hallucinatory quality of dreams, though confusing with the presence of trivial elements.
The first artwork I just published is called “Futile Attractions #01“, a dreamscape / erotic phantasy showing a woman suffering from hallucinations induced by desire. The image explores the capacity of desire to transform reality.
The palette is suggestive to the human body (skin tones, flesh tones, earth brown, blood red, light pink) in order to give the image sensuality, a bodily presence, a human presence. Used the canvas as a container for bodily sensations that come to an explosion through mental pictures described by the woman in the text. The textures give the image a vintage look.
The object on the right top is a black chain, disposed in a way that it makes an allusion to both a phallus and an umbilical cord. At the same time, the woman is “floating” in an embryon-like position. This umbilican cord symbolizes her connexion to the beloved person: physical and addictive.
Futile Attraction #01 by Ina Mar, Series surREALITIES, 2009, Mixed Media
Futile Attraction #01 by Ina Mar, Series surREALITIES, 2009, Mixed Media, detail
Futile Attraction #01 by Ina Mar, Series surREALITIES, 2009, Mixed Media, detail
The size of the original is 80 x 60 cm (23.40 x 32.00 inches).
You can buy a reproduction of “Futile Attraction #01″ on Imagekind. Please avoid very small reproductions, because the text will not be readable and the texture effects will not be visible!
One of my inspirations for this work was Cy Twombly’s “Ferragosto” series, especially for the choice of colours:
I’ll soon be publishing the second artwork of the series, “Your ocean”, in blue and yellow tones.
Some basic women’s rights are hidden between the veil or hijab of a traditional Islamic society. In some parts of the Islamic world there are abuses of women’s rights: rapes against women, forced marriages, harassment, spousal abuse and rape, less employment opportunities, oppressed property rights and education rights, female genital mutilation…
My newest design shows a Muslim woman wearing the hijab protests against the oppression of women’s rights, shouting: Unveil our rights!
Unveil Muslim Women's Rights
On June 6th, 2009, President Barack Obama called for France to lift bans on the wearing of hijab in schools. In his Cairo speech, he talked about women’s right to wear the hijab in Western Europe, with an emphasis on other women’s rights, especially education. Here is what Obama said:
I reject the view of some in the West that a woman who chooses to cover her hair is somehow less equal, but I do believe that a woman who is denied an education is denied equality. And it is no coincidence that countries where women are well-educated are far more likely to be prosperous.
Now let me be clear: issues of women’s equality are by no means simply an issue for Islam. In Turkey, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Indonesia, we have seen Muslim-majority countries elect a woman to lead. Meanwhile, the struggle for women’s equality continues in many aspects of American life, and in countries around the world.
Our daughters can contribute just as much to society as our sons, and our common prosperity will be advanced by allowing all humanity – men and women – to reach their full potential. I do not believe that women must make the same choices as men in order to be equal, and I respect those women who choose to live their lives in traditional roles. But it should be their choice. That is why the United States will partner with any Muslim-majority country to support expanded literacy for girls, and to help young women pursue employment through micro-financing that helps people live their dreams.
The Muslim Women’s Rights theme emerges this week through the protests of Iranian women against the results of the presidential elections on 12 June 2009. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won the election with 66% of the votes cast. Many international analysts doubt about the authenticity of the results and think that the vote count was fraudulent, favoring Ahmadinejad. Iranian people protested massively all over the world, with placards and t-shirts with the slogan “Where is my vote?”.
Thousands of Iranian women took protested in Tehran’s streets this week against the regime, hoping for CHANGE in their situation as women, hoping of a future without gender discrimination, which is a devastating reality in Iran. In Iran, women are regarded as second-class citizens. Through Iran’s legal system, they do not have the same legal rights as men, especially in cases of divorce, inheritance, property rights, crime… Even child custody! Furthermore, according to Christiane Amanpour, CNN’s Chief International Correspondent, Ahmadinejad has made it easier for men to practice polygamy and harder for women to access public sector jobs. According to journalist Azadeh Moaveni, Ahmadinejad mandated the way women dress and even censored Web sites dealing with health issues like breast cancer. Mir Hossein Moussavi and Mehdi Karrubi, opposition candidates, promised to change parts of the Iranian constitution concerning women’s rights, so many women demonstrated holding the picture of Moussavi.
The veil should be a matter of faith, not a matter of politics. In fact, unveiling women’s RIGHTS is much more important than unveiling their face, even though for some Muslim women removing their veil is an act symbolizing freedom and equality.
I discovered this poem by Cripchick today and wanted to share it with you:
yes i live, eat, breathe,
talk, wear,
carry,
disability pride
because i believe resisting assimilation will be what saves my community
but shh—don’t tell anyone— i’m kinda making it up as i go, living pride literally by the seat of my pants
i never know where i’ll be,
each day is new
emotionally, spiritually
personally, politically
tomorrow will i be head over heels in love
with my community?
taping posters on my wall of crip allstars and shit?
(and yes we have heroes, thank you very much)
or will i hate my body?
wish i was taller, darker, lighter
skinner, straighter—a body without curves
and uneven movements?
will i fell defeated
cheated
or simply lost and confused?
you see there’s no telling…
that is the disability experience.
I have created this Thomas Sankara T-Shirt series, especially this design where Thomas Sankara is speaking and showing his fist, in a star which has the colors of the Burkina Faso flag. Thomas Sankara is a former Burkina Faso leader, who stood up a lot for Africa’s freedom and African women’s rights.
So I’ve been contacted by a client today, who wished to have this design … on baby t-shirt! I explained her that I avoided putting this design on kid t-shirts, because I didn’t think there would be so young activists out there! In fact it’s a “harsh” series of designs, very political, very profound, with very strong slogans. I never thought kids would wear this. She replied: “We have got to start them early…”
A couple of months ago, another mother contacted me and requested a kids hoodie with a slogan against the use of child soldiers, for her 12-year-old daughter.
Kids become politically aware youth if they learn to live and grow up in a politically aware family. You have to discuss politics at home, in front of the kids, so they can develop interest in politics and in what is going on in the world. Don’t change the topic if they ask you questions and don’t let them center dinner conversation to what happened today at school: discuss politics with your children and read the daily news with them, explain them all about elections and teach them about political figures they should be aware of!
For the back-to-school season, Ina Mar Art and The Earth Shop designed especially for politically and environmentally aware kids and youth original green notebooks, human rights notebooks and disability awareness notebooks and journals.
I usually walk very fast, you know, I am (or pretend to be) a busy busy girl, or rather I am incapable of managing my time… I come too late for work because I wanted to create just one more design. Mostly late for appointments because I decided to do my taxes one hour before the appointment. Then I run to catch the bus, to catch the subway…
And the opposite, if I don’t have an appointment and am just walking alone, it’s for me impossible to walk normally, because I have to stop every two metres to take a photo or take a look at something: one more picture from this side of view, one more from the next side of view, which one is the best? Oh, the next one!
There are some many beautiful details in our every day environment, and they are changing and developping every single day! I sometimes envy people who (due to a disability) are confined to and gifted with a slow walk, because they have the time to contemplate all this during they are walking! This thought made me create the following slogan:
I know this particular font is a bit difficult to read, but I love it, it’s so positive, like every word is smiling out the message…
Here’s the message a fellow designer sent me about this shirt:
I loved “I move slowly so I can enjoy every moment of life.” You can’t tell that I have partially numb feet so I walk slowly making sure my foot is on the ground before taking the next step. I don’t look like I am walking differently except slow. Since there doesn’t look like there is anything wrong with me I hear a lot of HMMMPPPHHHHs!!! in back of me. I have nerve damage that fortunately won’t get worse but I’d rather walk a little slower than fall down. And I am not all that slow. Like not as slow as someone that has to use a walker for example. But I do enjoy when someone who is extra indignant has the nerve to say something and I say, “Oh I’m sorry if my nerve damaged feet move too slowly to suit you. Please forgive me for even trying to breath the same air as you.” I often get an apology and hopefully taught that person that not all disabilities are recognizable. My other favorite is, “sorry you didn’t have your lights and siren on so I can get out of the way for your emergency!!!”. I have to say more people are polite then rude, so the rude ones I consider entertainment LMAO.
Peace,
Rhonda
Thanks Rhonda for your wonderful message!
I checked my site statistics yesterday and found out someone from Columbia, South Carolina found my blog in Google using the following keyword: “rights of physically disabled persons to bear raise children”. So this maternity shirt is for you dear visitor:
I’m back! Well at least I hope so! I’ve been really busy the last months and completely neglected my blog… My news? An amazing trip to Italy: Val Camonica, Cinque Terre, Lucca, Pisa, Florence… You should visit Cinque Terre, it’s an absolutely amazing part of the Earth:
In the meanwhile I’ve created many new disability awareness posters and t-shirts with a bunch of new slogans like “Disability poses no limits to sport“, “Disability poses no limits to sex“, “Help disabled kids reach their potential“… My new disability awareness calendar 2009 is on its way too:
Some new environmental posters too: “Teach children to respect and conserve our natural resources (Then make sure you practice what you preach!)”:
A new Green Calendar 2009 is on its way too, with a mixture of old and new designs about gas conservation, going green and the natural world. Lots of people liked and bought my environmental calendar last year, so I hope I’ll make some more walls green and cheerful this year!
Don’t hesitate to send me your ideas and feedback, I’m there to create what YOU are looking for!
