Fat Bottomed Girls.

Last week I was doing some research (okay, I was mindlessly scrolling my Newsfeed on the ol' Facebook), when I came across a competition run by Side Street Sydney in which Caitlin Shearer prints were being given away. Admittedly, I had never heard of Miss Shearer but on scrolling through the interview with her - in which there were a number of examples of her work (one of which is included above) - I quite fell in love with the wistful, melancholy girls of her paintings dressed in pretty cinched things and seamed stockings. The gaping hole in my barely existent art collection made itself more apparent than ever and so within seconds I set upon writing Side Street an email explaining why, exactly, I deserved one of these beautiful prints. No word limit allowed me to babble on in my usual fashion (25 words? Hah! Try 500) and one essay and some eleven days later, I was the proud owner of a beautiful print.

And what made me think I deserved one of Miss Shearer's prints? Well, firstly, Miss Shearer and I seemed to have a number of similarities: I am also a lover of Sofia Coppola, Lula magazine, flower gardens, old movies and the 1950s; we had both exhibited at The Wall, Sydney's finest art based club night (if you can call DJing exhibiting - it is, after all, a glorified exhibiting of one's music collection, right?); she was featured in Vogue Girl Korea, I in Elle Girl Korea; her work was in Frankie, I read Frankie; and, last but certainly not least, I bought my brand spanking new MacBook from David Jones a few weeks ago, which, I realise, isn't quite up there with being featured in the display window of David Jones but both achievements, I would imagine, result in an equal amount of supercilious beaming. Secondly, at the time, my art collection (if you could call it as much) consisted of little else but a bunch of advertisements, posters and advertisements ripped out of old - and not so old - magazines, a drawing my friend Anya did of Bobby, herself and I on a discarded strongneck paper bag (that's a Strongbow longneck - clever, eh? Her cleverness unfortunately, not mine), a few bits picked up from charity shops (including a fish named Billy that sings Annie Lennox) and a wonderful, magical postcard I bought at the Mythic Creatures exhibition currently on at the ANMM that depicts three unicorns frolicking by a magnificent castle in the moonlight. And, whilst the unicorns and their friends were - and still are - certainly amazing, they were living a rather lonely existence. Fortunately, as I predicted, they're infinitely happier now that they have a pretty, plump thighed lady with lips of a temptress to call their friend.

Thank you Side Street Sydney for sending me the print and thank you Miss Shearer for giving these ever intriguing girls lives and, more importantly, fat bottoms. You can see more of Caitlin's work on her blog and get your hands on a print of your own - some for as little as $10 - from her Etsy.