Painting Power: Art, Healing And Defying The Patriarchy

© Kat Shaw

In a world that polices women’s bodies, Kat Shaw uses art as resistance - turning naked body portraits into a bold statement of empowerment and unapologetic freedom.

We are in a political climate where misogyny is at an all-time high, women’s struggles are amplified, and many of their fundamental rights are under threat. Yet, despite a constant struggle with censorship and being silenced by the Meta algorithm, Kat Shaw, artist, activist and woman extraordinaire, stands in defiance and solidarity with every woman all over the world. Her story is one of courage, self-love and the unshakeable belief that women deserve so much better.

What started as a personal journey towards self-love turned into a feminist movement to counteract the patriarchy and to empower women to love themselves. “I didn't realize that for over 40 years, I was living in these patriarchal misogynistic frameworks. I didn’t know it because it was drip-fed to me from birth.” 

As many women can relate, Kat spent most of her life dieting and exercising, trying to shrink her body and fit society's perceptions of what a woman should look like, and pinning her worth on the way she looked. However, a significant and traumatic event in her life over six years ago changed everything for her. She tells me that the trauma made her put on a lot of weight in a short time. 

“There was all this horrific stuff going on in my life, I couldn’t exercise, and as a result, I was eating anything that I could put in my mouth. I could hear the dialogue of society going: ‘You've let yourself go, look at you, you're disgusting. Look at the rolls of fat, look at the state of you.’ But then one day I thought, ‘I can't cope with life and get through everything whilst I hate myself’.”

Kat decided to sit naked in front of a mirror and draw herself. She added glitter and made it into a beautiful painting, which she calls her “bridge” to finding love for her body again. “[At the time] I couldn’t look at my body and think that [it was beautiful], but I could see beauty in my paintings. And so I just continued to draw and paint myself.” When a friend asked her what she was doing, it opened up conversations about how women see their bodies, and soon Kat was painting the naked bodies of other women. “And six years later, I’ve painted over 3,000 [of them]!”

© Kat Shaw

Having seen Kat’s impressive portfolio of beautiful women’s bodies in all different shapes, sizes and colours, I ask her how she decides on the colours and details she adds to every naked portrait she paints from photographs that women have sent to her. She explains that, as a qualified Reiki Master, she works with universal and goddess energy and lets it guide her while she paints each portrait. “When I go out to paint in my studio, I create a sacred environment. I light candles and sage the space so that the women [I paint] are safe, held, and empowered. I sit with their photos and tune in to their soul energy, and the colours and the paintings then just manifest themselves. It’s not a conscious process - I couldn't think of every single detail in every painting. Whatever energy I’m being given, it's allowing my hand to move.”

While the majority of feedback from women is positive, very few have an adverse reaction, but Kat explains that this is all a part of the healing process of her artwork.  Women are not usually used to seeing themselves naked and worshipped.  In these paintings they are vulnerable and laid bare - the painting is their soul, and sometimes it takes time for their conscious mind to fully see their gloriousness.  In a world where women are taught to stay small and hidden, this step is monumental in reclaiming their power, so triggers are often a part of the journey to seeing themselves fully, and when they do, magic happens. Her paintings are much more than just art; they’re modalities of healing.

“Through the trust process of me being able to deeply connect [with the women] and to work with their energy, I am able to also send them any healing that they may need, I hold them in sacred space, and it changes any subconscious negative body image they may hold, unlocking any trauma or wounding and rewriting their internal dialogue to one of love and worthiness,  allowing women to move on in their life with increased self-confidence, self-belief, self-worth and self-love.”

© Kat Shaw

Kat’s passion for making a difference in society and how women’s bodies are treated has led her to work on numerous projects. Most recently, for International Women’s Day, Kat has painted the naked bodies of 113 women in less than two months. On Sunday, 9th March, Kat’s exhibition Unapologetic featured those portraits, to celebrate all women, and to also protest the current and ongoing inequality and misogyny on a global scale. “There are the paintings, there are a lot of protest banners, there’s a soundtrack with the women's voices speaking their unapologetic stories, there are crowd protest sounds, and women's chants, so when you walk into the exhibition, you are  completely immersed in this fierce activist energy.” 

As well as the exhibition and the private opening ceremony for the women who had been painted, , she also organised a women-only private sacred ceremony on the day, during which she took the women on a spiritual self-love journey to reconnect with their naked bodies and remember their power, ending with them all painting each other’s naked bodies. As a grand finale in the live Unapologetic evening show, the women walked down a KATwalk covered in paint, naked, near-naked, or in their underwear - because choice and empowerment are at the centre of Kat’s mission to change the perception of women’s bodies. The event was more than just the nakedness, the event highlighted a woman’s right to show up in her own body exactly as she chooses to.

“We've fucking had enough of only ever seeing one size of body in social media. And we've had enough of our naked bodies only being put into two categories: Either shameful or sexual. We want other categories, which are ‘the right to choose’ and ‘empowered’.”

© Kat Shaw

Unfortunately, despite her relentless efforts to make a difference for women, Kat regularly faces obstacles and censorship when promoting and showcasing her work online, especially on Meta’s social media channels. Her Instagram posts showing women’s nipples are regularly taken down, and, in a shocking development, her Facebook page with over 60,000 followers was taken down permanently last year. Defiantly, she opened a new page and amassed 5,000 followers in a short time, but that page got taken down, too. “My voice is completely silenced, but look at what's happening in the world at the moment. There's no greater time when my voice is needed. Women's mental health is at an all-time low because we are only ever shown one ideal of a woman's body. So if you don't look like that, you're automatically unworthy, unlovable, and unacceptable in society.”

She also points to the male paradigm and patriarchy, wanting women to stay submissive, sexual or shameful, and small. “If women are seen in sexual or submissive positions on those platforms, that’s OK. But nakedness as empowerment is somehow offensive. And this is why I'm gathering all these women now to stand up and say: ‘We can do this and we are allowed to do this.’”

Kat does get some backlash from men, but says she’s mostly unfazed by it. However, she is most upset when other women try to bring her down or silence her. “I want to shake them and say: ‘You've been so indoctrinated by the patriarchy. Women are meant to stand together. No woman is free until we're all free’.”

With so many obstacles and barriers in artists’ ways and censorship at an all-time high, what advice does Kat have for other people in a similar situation? “There's never going to be a right time for you to do it. There's never going to be the right audience. People tend to hide their art because they're embarrassed. But you just have to do it. You just have to put it out there. The world needs art so desperately, and different art is going to resonate with different people, so if someone doesn’t like it, that’s OK, too. Don't bother trying to justify yourself, explain your reasons or try and make them like you. Fuck them. What matters is that you’re turning up for yourself and getting your art out there because the people it does reach are the people whose lives it’s going to change.”

© Kat Shaw

Kat’s mission is more than just painting - it’s a revolution. Through every brushstroke, she challenges the rigid confines of beauty, rewrites the narrative of women’s bodies, and creates a space where self-love is an act of defiance. Despite censorship, backlash, and systemic resistance, she refuses to be silenced. Her work is a testament to the power of art, community, and unapologetic self-acceptance. And as more women step forward, shedding shame and embracing their bodies, Kat’s message is louder than ever: We are worthy! We are powerful! And we will not be erased!

Follow Kat Shaw on Instagram and visit her website