Check out this video interview with graphic novelist Phoebe Gloeckner (via playgallery.org):

Ms. Gloeckner sounds like an interesting person: opinionated, slightly prickly, and possibly lots of fun after a margarita or two. After watching this a couple of times, I realized what strikes me about her work. She draws women as if they were real people. I don’t mean photorealistically, but like something other than overgrown baby dolls. Why does it seem like to be taken seriously as a female artist, I have to either paint sex kittens, look like a sex kitten, or both?

The post-feminist riot grrrl on my shoulder chimes in at this point, reminding me that it’s okay to be sexy and feminine and flirtatious without being a socioeconomic doormat. I agree. But that doesn’t mean that I have to exude hyperfeminity in every aspect of my life and work. I can own my sexuality without letting it define me.

Take, for example, this set of artist portraits by Tatiana Wills and Roman Cho. As I mentioned in my last post, I love seeing artists who look like normal people in real life. (It’s a crying shame when someone’s wardrobe or hair is more interesting than the stuff they make.) The Heroes and Villains portfolio shows a nice mix of ladies and gentlemen, and only one of them is naked. And I’m fine with that.

I also like the ways that Julie Speed, Eleanor Davis, and Joan Linder depict the body.

Related: Sarah’s sites tagged “body” on del.icio.us