Many men argue, that women come from hell (apparently that’s the reason we love having hot showers so much) and that even when looking innocent and delicate as angels, they’re more evil and mad than most men. Wrapping our arms and claws around them, eating their souls alive.
London-based illustrator, Polly Norton draws devilish, empowering illustrations of women and their demons, based on the representation of real women of the 21st century and their lives. The sickly images are sex driven, with each character being portrayed with care-free personality, often naked and vulnerable but equally strong and fierce at the same time.
Since graduating from Loughborough University in 2011 Polly has been commissioned by a variety of clients including Bloomsbury Publishing, Dazed Digital, Hunger, Dr Martens, Complex Magazine and Gucci. She has also been a guest speaker on the digital arts for the Apple Store hosted by Dazed Magazine. The 26-years old artist creates her drawing mostly by pen and by using digital practice to colour and edit them afterwards.
Ladylike demons are often found masturbating or doing whatever the hell they want and they’re believed to embody the idea of modern feminism, an alternative to the unrealistic feminity we see every day. Polly’s drawings are real and they let the audience peek into how it really looks like in most of the young women’s comfort zones- including body hair, stretch marks, messy rooms and imperfections, rather than they’re made to satisfy the male gaze. It almost looks like some of the drawings visualize women and their ex-lovers, in which lingering devils take over the female bodies and become hard to fight, as well as hard to forget. The selfie-taking, sexting girls, however, don’t seem to care and they happily give in into their secret, delirious desires.
Polly’s work is witty, satiric and enormously excellent in its representation of “real” women, gaining the artist a well-deserved spotlight. Her latest exhibition “Sorry grandma” took place in September 2015 and had a big success (according to Polly her grandma got also used to her style after searching the artworks on Google). We hope to see more of her work and exhibitions in the future, as her characters are exactly what the world needs to see.
Polly also has her own line of T-shirts, prints and phone cases that are available to buy, so head down to her online store to check out the amazing designs.
Check out her website for prints and T-shirts www.pollynorstore.co.uk/ and her Instagram for more pictures and updates of her work @pollynor
Images: courtesy of Pollynor