Academic Puzzles and Pale Answers
The title of this work comes from a poem written by the American poet, Barbara Novak. It is a self-portrait in which the artist wears a Mexican embroidered jacket, similar to those worn by the Mexican painter, Frida Kahlo. Sam Ainsley was Head of the Master of Fine Art Course at Glasgow School of Art at the time of creation, and she writes that "the architectural image at the top is a reference to the 'Academy' and the sense of surveillance I feel in relation to operating within that structure". The pinned gashes across her face refer to the sense of split identity she has felt about her 'public' and 'private' self. According to Ainsley, the public realm is often seen as masculine and the domestic space as female, and this is the concept, which she is challenging in her work. She has used an embroidery hoop in a number of paintings in order to focus attention on the centre of the work.
