Relating the origins of Town's “Musclemen” series, Iris Nowell describes the artist's after-dinner ritual of working in his home drawing studio, then watching “late night movies on two television sets.” During one such session, Nowell reveals that Town “came upon an international bodybuilding competition and was captivated by the human body performing its muscle-bulging poses as living sculpture”, leading to his series of portrayals of bodybuilders between roughly 1981 and 1985. Detailing the rarity of the female figure within the series, Nowell references the single image of “Musclewoman, 1984” as “barely distinguishable from the males in competition, apart from blond curls and lipstick. In her side chest pose, she looks as if her bulked-up upper arm muscles are joined to her breasts.” Discussing the series in an interview with Gary Michael Dault, Town offers that “when he began working on the Musclemen, 'I started out to mock them. Eventually I grew to love them.'”
