Period blood, Tinder and masturbation: Karla Monterrosa illustrates the awkwardness out of sex
NSFW: It's awkward, it's shocking, it's gross — but it's relatable
It's a pretty human condition to feel weird inside your own body. But Vancouver artist Karla Monterrosa has confronted the awkwardness of being of flesh and blood with illustrations and animations that combine tenderness with graphic portrayals of bodily actions from masturbation to period accidents.
The end result is an empowering portrayal of female bodies. In her drawing that places a brown-skinned woman in a garden of penises, Monterrosa declares victory for a woman of colour that often gets left out of the conversation about Tinder antics. Her protagonists groan at embarrassment and revel in sexual discovery.
CONTENT WARNING: The video below contains animated nudity and depictions of period blood and masturbation.
Watch the video:
Since Monterrosa has mastered the game of drawing the uneasiness we have with our own bodies, she's put herself in a new kind of anxiety-provoking situation: improv.
In this video, produced in collaboration with Josephine Anderson, you get to follow Monterrosa as she takes her unapologetic humour off the page and explains why it felt important for her to take it to the acting studio.
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