Just a band.....

Dangerous Beauty

Whilst in New York, I saw an exhibition called Dangerous Beauty, which encompassed all I have been thinking about when approaching issues of body image and the media's skewed ideas on what is beautiful..... Here is an explanation of what the exhibition was about

"In the wake of Madrid’s fashion week controversial ban on underweight models, an the recent publicized death from anorexia of a Latin American model, the fashion industry and the media went into a short lived frenzy of self reflection asking, what is too thin? The proposed ban drew support from only two other countries – Israel and India – while it was flatly rejected by the major world fashion capitals of Paris, London and New York. In a climate where whoever is thinner gets the job, the pressure to be thin is enormous and as these are the women and girls who are relentlessly photographed, they become style role models for a population fascinated by celebrity. In the quest to emulate this fiction of desirability, the journey from manipulation of images to the “doctoring” and manipulation of the self seems increasingly short. More money is spent in this country on cosmetics than on education and social services combined, while close to two million cosmetic surgery procedures were performed last year in the United States. Anorexia and self-mutilation are rampant. Girls, women and increasingly men alike, compare themselves to the air brushed “beauties” and feel that everything about themselves is wrong.The exhibition, Dangerous Beauty, investigates and challenges society’s ideal of beauty and the designer body created and supported by mass consumerism. Many of the artists selected capture the anxiety of this beauty -centred society and raise questions on the human impact of living in the glare of images that, without manipulation, may have no human incarnation. The exhibition aims to raise questions about the mass ideology of beauty and explore the connections between beauty and violence, the phobia of aging, issues of self-perception and the element of power inherent in an “ideal.”The exhibition will be composed of a selection of work in a variety of media (painting, sculpture, photography, installation and video) chosen to reflect a response to “dangerous beauty”, this area where the beauty myth collides with reality. The works selected examine the phenomena and implications of the current dictates of beauty and identity, contest the values and apparatus of the times and raise the question as to whether there is a place for the subjective and the individual in a society of mass expression." Artists in the exhibition include:Nelly Agassi, Beth B, Nicola Costantino, Jacob Dahlgren, Davis & Davis, E V Day, Martin C De Waal, Daniella Dooling, Ruud Van Empel, Sylvie Fleury, Lauren Greenfield, Margi Geerlinks, Kirsten Geisler, Micha Klein, Paul Knight, Barbara Kruger, Rachel Lachowicz, Assi Meshullam, Marilyn Minter, Joshua Neustein, Erwin Olaf, OrlanPatricia Piccinini, Tom Sanford, Gae Savannah, Joan Semmel, Joseph Stashkevetch

More Scrapping

Im going to try and post all the scrapping work I do, so I can see how my style develops! So here is the card I made for Zoe's birthday.

Words of Wisdom

These words made great sense to me too!

Rejection is not always the terrible thing it appears to be when you are in it. Sometimes it is a great gift, you just have to wait to see what form it might possibly take later. Keri Smith

The universe knows better than you do......

Reading this post from Keri's blog made me think of all those times the world feels connected in funny ways and you realise things were meant to be. Life goes in funny twists and turns and sometimes it feels like a bad decision has been made, but i am a FIRM believer in things happening for a reason, and that (as Keri says) "the universe sometimes (always) knows better than you do" Maybe its just a way of putting a positive spin on things that were at first negative, but then I guess that makes me a positive person then, doesn't it?!

Some examples of things that happened in my life for a reason.........

• If I hadn't had such horrible flatmates in Cardiff, then maybe I would have ended up a journalist. And then I never would have found the studio, become a painter, learnt as much as I have about counselling and led the more free and easy life I have, developing the realisation that work is NOT the be all and end all, and that it is much better to be happy in your life and work than it is to be miserable or unfulfilled but earning £££!
• If my Dad hadn't died when I was young, maybe I would still be trying to sort out his life and fight his battles, rather than concentrating on enriching my own life. I miss him greatly, but his death freed me in lots of ways.
• If I hadn't ended up nearly having a mini-breakdown after taking on the psychiatric job, then maybe I never would have found the fab speech therapy job which might take me in a whole new direction i never considered. Also, this period in my life gave me greater empathy with the members in the studio, and made my determination to not take on things that don't feel right even more concrete!

The other side of this is that you could drive yourself mad thinking about all those "what if's?" that may have taken life in another direction. However, i have learnt not to give much time to these thoughts. I believe its best to regret nothing, as it has all shaped me into the person I am. and Despite having hang-ups and issues, and recognising I have made mistakes in my life, I have come to really like the person I am, and that is the least I have come to hope for, whereas I know lots of people who strive for this as the most they could hope for. Maybe if I had followed different roads then I would not feel like this, and liking myself is fundamental to my happiness.

Creative pause....

I saw this on Ali's site today, and it inspired me to have a think about how I'm doing with my word for the year.

Just to recap, the idea was to pick one word for the year, and try and live your life with this word as inspiration. Mine, obviously, was CREATE.

I think I'm doing good! I've generally been more proactive with my painting, and one sale and one commission under my belt so far this year is proof of this! There has also been the Saatchi competition entry, which encouraged me to publicise myself as much as I could. I have also done some scrapbooking which has been good, and made a "creative journal". The aim for me now is to use it more!

I think I'm getting there, but have more to achieve. I want to get all my paintings finished and then sort out my artroom so it is a much more creative-friendly space, I'd like an exhibition of my work before the year is out, and I need to work on making more time and space for creative endevours. A lot of this year so far has been about clearing, decluttering and sorting. Hopefully I should have all of that finished soon, so that more time is freed up.

And its going to be really important to keep up the momentum when I start my job and have less time on my hands. However, I will have more money, so its not all bad!!!

Sold!

Just sold another painting! This came about through someone discovering my website after being sent the link to The Saatchi competition. Just goes to show that I need to get myself and my work out there as much as possible...... you never know who may stumble across it!

First Attempts.....

Here are my first attempts at scrapbooking........The top one is the front cover of a photo album I made for mum for mothers day, the second is the front cover of my creative journal. For first attempts, I don't think they are too bad!