User:Lindbn2/gap analysis

Gap Analysis

 * What is the title of the article in which you identified a gap. If no article exists at all, what should the title be?

Alyssa Monks.


 * Document the gap you found, describe how you identified it, and analyze its impact on knowledge.

I have identified a significant Wikipedia gap for the photorealist artist Alyssa Monks--her only page happens to be in German, and even then it is quite a short Wikipedia page. I found her simply by looking up “new feminist artists” on Google, and upon doing more research into her, she is a significant Brooklyn artist--why is her page so minimal? Her page may be minimal because she is not all that wealthy, and was very poor up until just a few years ago. She is also a woman living in Brooklyn by herself--oftentimes, women artists gain recognition because they are married to more powerful men, or other artist men. Monks is single, and therefore does not have that “husband lifeline” to get recognition for her work on Wikipedia. She has done Ted Talks and many, many interviews for artist magazines and websites, and is on the forefront of photorealism in paintings. Her works focuses on people, specifically women, and portraying them in ways that are not typically painted by men. Her art depicts the female form, but not sexualized at all, and usually distorted by either nature or water. By leaving out her work, her background, and techniques from Wikipedia, she will not be easily found, and rather will fall into the typical New York obscurity assumption, rather than crediting her with her incredible work with photorealistic paintings. She technically has a page in German on Wikipedia, but when she is an American artist this is not helpful nor relevant.


 * Propose a paragraph of new or substantially edited content based on reliable sources. (If you are editing existing content, post the current version along with your edited version, and clearly mark which is which.)

Alyssa Monks
Alyssa Monks (born November 27th, 1977) is an American photo-realistic painter. She currently resides in Brooklyn, New York City.

Life
Monks grew up being the youngest of eight siblings in New Jersey, which she notes greatly affected her view of painting and her desire to paint. She says she knew she was destined to paint when she was only eight, and began experimenting with oil paints at this time. She attended Boston University for her B. A., studied in Florence, Italy, and continued on to earn her M. F. A. at New York Academy of Art. Around 2011, her mother was diagnosed with lung cancer, and when she died in 2012 Monks says she went through a difficult, emotional time by herself.

Work
Monks' work is typically centered around photo-realistic paintings, depicting people (typically women) in shower, baths, and other water-themed scenes. These paintings are typically very photo-realistic, and came about from her fascination with water, and how it made the subject look different from their usual form. She found that water was challenging to paint, and played around with different elements like oil and flour to create new shrouds. Her work usually centers on a woman in a bath or steamy shower, and means to "transfer the intimacy and vulnerability of my human experience into a painted surface." She has also been called a feminist artist by depicting women nudes in a distorted fashion. She usually uses her friends and those close to her in her paintings, which she claims affects her work, and allows for intimacy and comfort.


 * List the reliable sources that could be used to improve this gap. (You can use the Cite tool from the editing toolbar above to input and format your sources.)


 * http://www.nailedmagazine.com/art/artist-feature-alyssa-monks/
 * http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blogs/alyssa-monks-photorealistic-oil-paintings
 * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRrNST9OAcA
 * http://www.refinery29.com/10-female-artists#slide-3
 * http://dirtylaundrymag.com/articles/alyssa-monks/