Loren Kane: A Glimpse into the Female Experience

There’s a common experience that is shared amongst generations when faced with a nude woman: instant shock and discomfort. 

Whether it's a scene in a risque film or printed into pages of a magazine, one of the first instincts is to feel uneasy. Looking away but at the same time, not being able to resist continued glances. 

Perhaps, it feels wrong, like a guilty pleasure that nobody wants to admit to.

More importantly, people often feel uncomfortable seeing a woman in such a vulnerable state. And oftentimes, it’s due to the historical and systemic sexualization of women.

But for Loren, this is the reaction she’s looking for. 

Loren Kane, 21, is a recent graduate from California State University, Long Beach, whose passion has always been with the arts—specifically art of the female physique. 

Over the years, her style has slowly transformed into what can only be described as bold and unapologetically nude with its feminine undertones underlying the deeper message. 

With influence from artists of ’60s Americana style like Nadia Lee Cohen and Cindy Sherman to photo-realistic artists like Noelia Towers, the pink-haired painter has a knack for redefining power with an intense approach.

Kane smiling with one of her self-portrait sketches. Photo courtesy of Loren Kane.

Like anything nonconformist, Kane often faced repercussions from her peers for her art’s loudness and her intense approach, causing her to step back from this style for a while during her years in university. 

“There’s a difference between being naked and being nude,” says Kane. “I started to feel like what I enjoy drawing—the female figure—was something that I couldn't draw without people sexualizing it.” 

Kane shares her experience of coming into her own with this style at a time when she felt boxed in from the standards of academia and perfectionism and saw a male peer doing her exact art choice except with blatant sexual connotations.

Through this experience, she began experimenting and getting bolder with what she put on the canvas. 

She’s gone from soft and subtle drawings to full-body paintings bridging between the commonalities of a woman and phallic symbols of power like guns and strap-ons. 

These are her symbols of ownership over one’s power and erasure of societal expectations of women’s bodies, which often stem from experiences in womanhood since adolescence.

The artist’s process often starts from sketches in her notebook to modeling multiple reference photos and transitioning onto large canvases, which can take her a week to a few months.

It isn’t a new phenomenon that there is more to a painting than its physicality, but it’s harder for artists like Kane when the message she tries to spread has historically been labeled taboo and inappropriate.

Negative perceptions only heighten when the artist purposely makes audiences uncomfortable. This is exactly what Kane does. 

When taking away the sensuality that has historically been placed on the female anatomy, you’re left with just a body.

“I'm not trying to say anything crazy. I'm just trying to talk about how I feel in my life and my experiences,” says Kane. “I want people to be uncomfortable with the way that they feel about women's bodies and the taboo of a naked body.”

LOST by Loren Kane. Photo courtesy of Loren Kane.

“Is it because she's naked? Is it because you can't do anything other than sexualize that every time you see a woman's body, it has to be sexual? No matter if I'm brushing my teeth or in the shower crying, you’re still trying to sexualize it?”

Kane explains both the connection and correlation between discomfort and sexualization of the female nude body and how society has been historically taught to feel this unease due to this phenomenon.

“I want people to be almost a little disgusted with themselves, and maybe disgusted with me a little bit for making them feel so disgusted,” she says.

While every piece Kane has put out has significance for her portfolio, her most personal came at a time when she truly hit rock bottom.

During her last semester at CSULB, she lost her best friend to an overdose after struggling with addiction. 

They’d have conversations surrounding his mental health and reckless behaviors, making her afraid for his well-being. Through his loss, she lost her spark.

Though he was one of her biggest supporters in her art career, she felt no motivation or love towards her art or creating it. 

During some of his final moments, he told her that she needed to continue her passion for him. That is where her piece, (don’t) JUMP was born.

(don’t) JUMP by Loren Kane. Photo courtesy of Loren Kane.

“He was living his life way too close to the edge,” Kane says. “He said he felt like he was doing backflips on the edge of a bridge, which is where this painting comes from.”

She remembers getting a C for this painting, yet it remains one of her favorite and soul-defining pieces. Through grief and love came a painting that signified the light at the end of the tunnel for Kane.

Even though the piece isn’t aligned with her typical works of empowerment and nudity, the ambiance of her message remains through perseverance regardless of adversity and societal expectations.

Kane plans to continue her art journey in the same trajectory with the hopes of selling her pieces online and demonstrating her work at local art showings. 

Through these future plans, she strives to continue the exploration of the taboo erasure of the female anatomy, sexuality, and societal culture through a realism lens. 

“I want to give the power back to the female body and back to the woman in these paintings that you're not just an object to be looked at,” says Kane. 

“If this is what you want to see, here it is. Look.”