Story of my Marilyn Monroe

Because of the immense support, I’m here to bring you close to my very dear artwork. I’m about to introduce you a story of my Marilyn Monroe.

Some time ago I posted an article titled I – an artist  It was immediately met with greater success I could ever dream of. It’s my most read, liked, and commented post ever.

Many of you left sweet, encouraging comments underneath it and I’m so grateful for every single one of them.

Because of such support and demand for my artworks, I’m very happy to announce I got back to creating art again. My biggest thank you goes to juliemellorpoetsite . as this happened:

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I received the book and started working on it. I’m very grateful for this opportunity. Even though she made it clear I don’t have to create anything. I felt like it’s the right push for me to get to creating my thing again. So here is a small sneak peek of what you might expect in the future on my blog:

As you all liked my art so much I’m here to bring it even closer to you than before.

Marilyn Monroe

I myself consider my Marilyn Monroe to portray the best piece I ever made and it has great personal value to me as I’m about to explain it to you in this article.

As you know by now from my I – an artist article, I attended art school when I was a kid. One day we got an assignment to recreate photography into a much bigger form using the square net.

Point was to make it as realistic as possible. We had to be precise and pay attention to the details.

I got to choose from 2 woman’s photographs: Audrey Hepburn and Marilyn Monroe.

At that time when I created my Marilyn, I was just 13 years old and knew nothing much about neither of the ladies.

Sure I knew their names and simple basic information but nothing else to choose by, but I was drawn to Marilyn more. I listened to my guts and you already know who I choose to draw.

I even took my final work home even though we usually left all of our artworks at school and I truly never been more proud of myself. Here is my Marilyn I drew when I was 13 (9 years ago)

For my final work at art school I simply copied this art I did before and inspired by Andy Warhol’s pop-art color scheme I did my own mosaic of Marilyn Monroe.

Sadly  – but not so much – I can’t show you a photo of my final work as it’s displayed at my art school in my hometown.

But I decided to recreate the artwork and use it to decorate my new room in my family’s newly built house. I still had the original picture so I copied it on the paper, bought some wavelets paper, glue, and got to work.

I took me around two months to finish 2 pieces. It would be much quicker but this was the time I was suffering from my mental illness the most and I took the opportunity to create art as a small form of therapy.

I took a bunch of breaks and I considered it an incredible success if I glued like 15 colorful pieces in a week.

Now it will forever remind me of my worst times and shows me the beauty that came out of it.

How I did it?

I copied the original on the baking form. Placed the baking form on clear paper and drew over existing lines with my pencil. It created an imprint on the new paper and I retraced those lines and the portrait was copied.

Then I randomly cut colorful wavelets paper into small pieces. Pour liquid glue on separate paper. Took a small brush and glued each piece individually.

Originally I wanted to do 3 portraits and exchange the colors in each of them but then I settled just for 2 and placed original black and white work between them.

What started out as a simple school assignment turned out to have greater meaning to me.

Since I already knew her face detailed as I drew her I slowly learned more info about her and grew to like and admire the woman. I noticed many similarities that made me relate to her. I’m sure as hell not comparing myself to the most beautiful woman who ever walked the earth, but there are few things we have in common and many others I just admire about her:

• Curves – Marilyn was not size 0 and neither am I. To see a woman with curves viewed as a sex symbol is a great boost for me and I bet many other women’s self-esteem. There is still wild discussion going on whether Marilyn was or was not plus sized but the point remains the same. She knew how to wear her curves.

The confidence she had is something I greatly admire and aspire to have

• Mental illness – It’s a well-known fact that Marilyn suffered from mental illness. Depression, anxiety, self-doubt, low self-esteem, desperate need to be loved and admired.  Mental illness ran in her family. In the end, she lost her battle as she reportedly committed suicide. (this topic is way too controversial and mysterious thought)

I can surely relate to her in this one as I talked about my own experiences with mental illness in my article HERE  .

To see such a goddess experience mental illness and continue to work and be one of the most influential women ever is very empowering for me.

• Creativity – You can’t deny her artistic soul. It feels like an artistic soul and mental illness go hand in hand. It’s like the creativity and beauty is too much for your brain to handle so it gets sad. 
• Menstrual pain – Marilyn suffered from huge menstrual pain. Reportedly she once stopped her car and wince in pain on the sidewalk. She took a bunch of painkillers and this is something I can relate to as well. I suffered from unbearable menstrual pain since I was 14. I had strong cramps. Kept vomiting. Fainting and crying in pain for 3 days a month. I couldn’t go to school or work properly as I couldn’t move because of the pain. I took a hell lot of pills. Because of medical toleration, I kept needing more and stronger ones. Blessings of a woman. Luckily when I was 18 my gynecologist prescribed me birth control pills to ease the pain.
• Determination – Marilyn did everything it took to make her dream come true. All she wanted was to be an actress and be loved. With 3 failed marriages and a shit ton of men claiming to bed her ( well of course if you had the chance you would claim you fucked Marilyn Monroe because who wouldn’t want to?). I’m not really sure if she was truly loved.

Marilyn Monroe was loved but was Norma Jeane?

There  is no denying her being a call girl but that just proves her incredible determination to get what she wanted

• Sex symbol – Considering the times when she lived and for a woman at that time being so open about her own sexuality is admirable. Even now woman talking about sex, liking sex, and practicing sex is still considered something shameful. We are not supposed to talk about it cuz it makes people uncomfortable. I feel like Marilyn brought grace into a woman’s sexuality.
• Style – No matter what she wore she looked incredible. She knew how to wear clothes – an important and many times neglected features.

There was confidence and sex appeal flashing out of her every move and every look.

I’m currently reading a book about Marilyn’s life called Goddess: The Secret Lives of Marilyn Monroe by Anthony Summers and I’m just a couple of pages in but I’m loving it.

In conclusion:

I aspire to be like her and I enjoy drawing her very much.
I end this rant with my photo with Marilyn’s wax figurine in Prague’s wax museum from this article

Thank you so much for your attention
xo Natalia