DoubleTap is an interview series highlighting artists whose work explores sex, body, and identity.
For artist Hilde Atalanta, both gender and sexuality are a limitless well of creative inspiration. Based in Amsterdam, the 29-year-old illustrator and painter uses graphite pencils, watercolor, acrylic paint, and black ink in their quest to reveal the inner workings of diverse identities and relationships. In addition to making custom portraits, Atalanta runs two projects, The Vulva Gallery, which explores sexual health through illustrations of all kinds of vulvas, and Youāre Welcome Club, which focuses on body positivity and inclusion. Atalanta hopes their artwork challenges the way we see and experience our bodies by showing us a spectrum of human beings in all shapes, sizes and colors.
In this interview, we speak with the artist about their creative process and the inspiration behind Youāre Welcome Club.
Hi Hilde! Will you tell us more about you?
H:Ā My name is Hilde Atalanta, Iām 29 years old. I’m an illustrator and painter, living and working in Amsterdam. I love making portraits, and I like working in different styles. I mainly work with graphite pencils, watercolour, acrylic paint and black ink. I recently started making bigger works on canvas. My work revolves around the search for identity and different forms of relationships, sexualities and gender identities. In my work I like to play with gender; many of the – often androgynous – characters I paint are based on female models. Besides making portraits, I’m working on two other projects. With The Vulva Gallery I focus on body positivity and sexual health education. With my most recent project You’re Welcome Club, I focus on diversity, body positivity and inclusivity.
What inspired you to launch Youāre Welcome Club?
In the past two years Iāve been running The Vulva Gallery, where Iām portraying a wide variety in vulva shapes, opening up conversation about sexual health and related topics. After a year I felt the need to broaden my view; I wanted to speak about human diversity in a broader sense and I decided to start up a second account: Youāre Welcome Club. The general reason for focusing on diversity is that Iāve been noticing over the years that the popular media are portraying a certain image, āidealā or āperfectā women and men. They are mostly thin/athletic models, often whiteāand mainly very feminine women and very masculine men. Many individuals (including myself) donāt recognize themselves in these models, presented as āidealā women and men. Seeing these āperfectā models can make an individual feel insecure about themselves, even feeling left outāas itās often an impossible standard they have to live up to. However, seeing oneself represented (in popular media) can give an individual the reassurance that they are normal, that they belong, that they are part of our society. With Youāre Welcome Club I wanted to make a series of illustrations where Iām showing a wide diversity of human beings, with different kinds of backgrounds, sexualities, gender identities and body shapes. An honest representation of our society, but with the emphasis on individuals that arenāt often portrayed.
How long have you been developing this body of work? How do you hope to grow this series in the future?
I started Youāre Welcome Club in August 2017. Iām hoping it will keep continue growing into an even bigger and more inclusive series, and an interactive and supportive community.
What is your process for creating these illustrations? Do you draw from real life? Do you make these digitally or by hand?
I draw all illustrations by hand. First Iām making rough pencil sketches, and Iām tracing those with a black fineliner. Then Iām scanning these line illustrations, and Iām coloring them in using Photoshop. Iām also planning on making a series of paintings using acrylic or gouache paint.
What has surprised you most about doing illustrations around body image and identity?
Thereās so much more diversity in the world than Iāve could have imagined before portraying this diversity.
How do you use your artwork to champion inclusion, diversity, body and sex positivity?
Iām simply representing diversity. I feel that images can tell stories and convey emotions in different ways than words can do.
What do you hope viewers will take away from seeing your illustrations?
Iām aiming to make a series of illustrations in which people recognize themselves. I want people to feel welcome, to feel included, and to know that they belong in our society just as much as everybody else. Also I want to represent and thereby normalize bodies that arenāt often portrayed. By portraying a wide range in body diversity Iām saying: all bodies are good bodies; we are all valid human beings and diversity is a wonderful thing.
I would love to live in a more inclusive society, where people are open towards each otherās differences and where they respect each other. I noticed that simply respecting other human beings seems to be a difficult thing. Itās easy to get confused by someone who looks different. Itās easy to be scared of people who feel different from us. Still, I feel we need to invest in having an empathic, or at least respectful attitude towards each other. The world is full of diversity, why would we ignore this? It would be so boring if we would all look and act the same. We can learn so much from our differences. Itās simply so much more interesting to look at the world from all kinds of different perspectives. āDifferentā isnāt something to be afraid of, as thereās so much beauty in our differences.