Final Self-Portrait - "Two Sides of the Same Coin"

·      The subject of my image is the beauty standard women are held to with makeup. Women are held to the standard that their skin must be clear, they should have bold full lips, perfectly shaped eyebrows, and so much more. My goal is to make people aware of the burden that these beauty standards are.

·      The content of my image is me. There are two “ME’s”, the first one shows a happy, ecstatic girl. She is full of life, the background behind her emits the colors purple and blue. The second “me” is relatively emotionless. She is looking down while having a mask of makeup on her face. Behind her it is dark and gray.

·      The choices that led me to the composition of this image is that all around us are advertisements and pictures of women that show the beauty standards that are “accepted”. These beauty standards are next to impossible to achieve. Many times, there have been models who see the final photograph from their shoot and don’t even recognize themselves. Many celebrities are starting to realize the effects this is having on young girls and even women opting for their photos to be untouched. For example, Kiera Knightley has expressed her stance against photoshop on several occasions, and she’s always had an honest stance about her body. When the King Arthur posters came out in 2004, revealing that her bust was significantly altered to appear larger, she revealed that her training for the movie had decreased her breast size even more. Also, in November 2014, she agreed to pose topless for Interview Magazine demanding that the photos be unedited so people can actually see what she really looks like. She said, “OK, I’m fine doing the topless shot so long as you don’t make them any bigger or retouch.’ Because it does feel important to say it really doesn’t matter what shape you are.” Many others have spoken out about the intense photoshop that is put into these photos like Lady Gaga, Kate Winslet, and even Beyonce. These impossible beauty standards causes many women to have low self-confidence, some women even refuse to leave the house without doing their hair and make-up.

·      I wanted to create a photo that successfully shows the effects of these beauty standards. So, the makeup that is put on women usually is like a mask. At first, I wanted to create a picture where half on my face had makeup and the other half didn’t but I realized that this would not successfully show the deeper emotions behind the burden of makeup. It would be difficult to take a picture where my face has two different emotions. So I decided to spilt it into two different pictures. I was set on doing a picture with makeup and one without. I knew the picture of me without make up would radiate happiness and the one with makeup would be more sad/emotionless. After researching and talking to the professor, I remembered a makeup look from Halloween where people would literally make the makeup they have on look like a mask taped to the face. I thought that portraying the makeup as a literal mask would create a better impression on showing the burden of it. Because of this burden I knew that the background behind the me with makeup would be dark and gloomy. I chose to portray the me without makeup as happy because it is important for people to know that everyone should be body positive. Throughout life it is important to be comfortable in your own skin. I chose the purple and blue background behind me by researching the colors of human auroras. Shades of blue represent peacefulness and clarity. The purple represents vision and imagination.

·      I believe my work is more of a collage.

·      I would think my artwork sends a similar message as Marina Abramovic work “Art must be Beautiful”. In this work she wants to send the message that the art and artist must be beautiful because of the standards society has set.

·      I think this image shows people that women do not need makeup to be beautiful and that makeup is just a social standard created by society.

·      The difference between this self-portrait and my last self-portrait is that this one sends a greater message about social standards.

·      What influenced this change is everything that we’ve learned throughout the course. All the readings we have done and new artists I was introduced to showed be how important it is to be comfortable in your own skin, especially as a woman.