California artist Stephanie Sarley has been stirring up controversy with her latest work.
Oakland based artist and badass, Stephanie Sarley has become somewhat of a social media sensation overnight with her art pieces pertaining to the vagina paired with the use of common fruits. She is also feeling the backlash from many pertaining to the censorship of her work. Her current focus is on female empowerment through artistic and humorous representations of vaginas and vulvas.
Her current Instagram account now boasts over 110K followers with her ‘fruit fingering’ videos reaching and surpassing viral status. My favorite is the blood orange videos, which happen to be among the favorite for many. Her first claim to fame was with a blood orange video and came in 2015 when New York’s art critic Jerry Saltz gave Stephanie major props on her work.
“I knew I was an artist from a very young age,” says Stephanie. “Around six years old I started to take an interest in drawing with my grandfather at the local art museums of San Francisco.”
Stephanie grew up surrounded by a family of artists. She found sanctuary in art classes in high school and eventually became a tattoo artist through an apprenticeship.
“I did tattooing, printmaking, along with stone sculpture carving and masonry, then onto digital painting and animation. Now I’m painting, illustrating and producing short videos and photographs for my new work.”
The new work doesn’t come without some sort of price, unfortunately. Stephanie has been receiving negative responses for her feminist artwork and some consider it to be “too vulgar” for the Internet.
“It’s really upsetting and people who feel that way are horribly misinterpreting my message. My entire focus in art is dealing with censorship of art and bodies and promoting healthy open sexuality.”
Stephanie’s inspiration for her artwork came from her own personal journey and struggles with confidence. “It’s about growing pains and becoming a woman.”
“My Crotch Monster and Orcunt ongoing series is personifying vaginas and associating them with everyday activities like drinking, smoking, laughing, crying, eating and so on. This imagery de-stigmatizes the vagina and makes a relatable image.”
So why the fruit?
“The finger fruit series I’m now on is about sexual exploration,” says Stephanie. “It is believed that women do not masturbate as much as men and are not as horny. My fruit art breaks the stigma that women are not supposed to be horny and sexually open. Also, my fruit art seems to challenge people on how they view and internalize their own sexuality.”
Among having a successful series on vaginas, Stephanie has also released her adult coloring book called Dick Dog and Friends. I can only imagine what goodies await my crayon!