Sex Goddess is a painted portrait of the performance artist, Jessica Blinkhorn, by artist Sarah Stolar. Blinkhorn is an Atlanta-based interdisciplinary artist whose work advocates for the LGBTQ+, disabled, and aging communities. In conversation with the advocate and artist, she revealed that one of the most discriminatory experiences is not being treated as a sexual being because she uses a wheelchair and has limited mobility. As a result of this conversation, Stolar chose to represent Blinkhorn as a dominatrix. The wheelchair is painted in quick brushwork with minimal detail, thus drawing attention away from what binds her. She looks down upon the viewer - a reverse of her daily experience of being permanently seated and placed physically lower in space than those around her. This painting is a portrait of the artist, and it is also an image promoting sex positivity and personal empowerment.

About the Artist

Sarah Stolar (b. 1974, Chicago, IL; she/her) is an interdisciplinary artist who lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The breadth of her work includes painting, drawing, multi-media installation, film, video, and performance art. She grew up in her mother’s art studio and award-winning art school Schain Studios in Cincinnati, received a BFA in Painting from the Art Academy of Cincinnati (2000), and an MFA in New Genres from the San Francisco Art Institute (2003). Her work has been exhibited across the United States and internationally with solo exhibitions at the New Mexico Museum of Art, Harwood Museum of Art, and BGMoCA in Montevideo, Uruguay. She is an internationally award-winning filmmaker, including Best Experimental Film at Synergy Film Festival, New York City and finalist for the Andy Warhol Award for Best Experimental Film in the US. A committed educator for over fifteen years, Sarah Stolar is currently the Chair of the Department of Fine Arts, Film and Digital Media at the University of New Mexico - Taos. Follow Sarah Stolar on Instagram.