Why She Wears Red: A Watercolor Fashion Portrait

Medium: Watercolor, pencil, and color ink

Subject: A woman in a red dress with red lips

Theme: The sadness and anger held inside red, and a woman’s solitude and strength

Artist: Kazue Shima

Red holds passion, glamour and a kind of allure. But inside it there is a sadness, a longing and an anger that have nowhere to escape, and I cannot help wanting to keep them.

What does it mean to wear red lips and a red dress?
Is she full of confidence, is she elated? Does she feel no hesitation about putting such a raw color over skin with blood running through it?

And standing on ground where magma longs to burst through the surface, is she not afraid to wear a red like this?

Thinking this, I still end up choosing red paint.

The solitude and strength on a woman’s face can only be shown in this color. Whatever lies ahead of her gaze, I think, is her reason for wearing this red.

I painted this a while ago and did not pay it much attention. Recently, I suddenly felt it had come back to me, and now I am finally bringing it out into the open. It must be the red that brought it back.

I always wonder why I am so drawn to red. I don’t fully know myself.
But there is no doubt it was a color sleeping quietly inside me long before I began to paint.

From around the age of three, my parents allowed me to carry a bright red bag holding crayons, scissors and origami paper.
They ignored people who said it was dangerous for a small child, and let me enjoy shapes and colors freely, even if I cut my fingers a little.
I always walked around carrying my dreams and fantasies in that red bag.

In elementary school, when I was first handed paints in art class, I had already decided which colors to use: black and red.
My teacher criticized me for not choosing orange, yellow or green like the other children,
but I never followed her and kept filling the paper with black and red.

Now, red gathers in my room: not only paints, but color inks, pastels, color pens, many kinds of paper such as tissue paper and tant paper, scraps of advertisements, even packaging meant only to be thrown away.

Alone inside that red, I am busy being afraid, being sad, and feeling strength surge through me.

I painted this work in watercolor, pencil and color ink.

The pairing of black and red that I chose as a child continues in my current work with ink and tissue paper.