I guess the correct way to start this would be by introducing myself. So, hi! My name is Claudia Allmann, and I am a third year Social Anthropology and English Literature student at UCT and when my being allows for it, I like to illustrate.
I never think about my “creative process” or anything like that, because I do not think that I have one. It’s very rarely the case that I can illustrate when I or someone else forces me to, because the pressure of producing anything decent when I haven’t had the chance to process something that inspires me, causes me to shut down creatively.
However, I can speak about the things that generally inspire me to illustrate.
Since I started to develop my illustrating style, the things that propel me to illustrate have evolved quite drastically into the creative space that I currently find myself in. Over the past couple of years, as I have become more and more aware of the many layers of pain caused by fragile and toxic masculinity, my illustrations have tended to encompass my experiences- as a white cisgendered womxn- of these layers. Because of this I have come to focus on ideas around the immense strength that lies within womxn joining together, the feeling of losing ownership or control over your body because of a man and then countering that, by looking at ways to fill myself and others with self-love and body/sex positivity.
Other times I also just like to draw what I see in front of me.
I always hope to produce relatable content for womxn- either to give someone a little strength or reassure them that they are not alone. But I guess, ultimately, I draw for myself as a way of figuring out how to navigate through these sometimes painful, sometimes exciting, spaces.