Sustained Investigation #4

Title: Culture or Cult?

Size: 12'' x 18'

Statement:

This piece shows a collage of beauty magazine cutouts, contrasted with sketches of “real” women. Because my focus is on female sexuality and what it means to be feminine, I wanted to use a material related to the subject. I thought a beauty magazine was more than appropriate, because so much of beauty standards are shaped by the beauty industry. This also seems to shape female beauty standards which singles only one type of beauty. In today’s society beauty standards/norms are very relevant in the female community and, sadly, is a large factor in shaping femininity. I wanted to show that there is more to feminity by sketching all body types and putting these on top of the collage.

I used magazines to cut out and paste together images of beauty standards. This was all assembled on plain white paper. I then used heavier paper and black ink pen to sketch the female body types and glued those on top of the collage.

I had a really hard time with this project. I originally was going to use the collage as a background for colored drawings I had done of different women. However, I love collaging and I got too into what I was making and the piece became too busy to be a background. I also loved the collage and the little messages I had created with images so much that I didn’t want to cover them up. I knew I needed more than just a simple collage to hand in, so I added the sketches to give more meaning and establish a contrast of opinion. As for next steps, I need to add a border and somehow, maybe, make it relate more to my previous piece.