Big Idea

     This year in AP Gerdi wanted us to have an overarching theme for our portfolios. Throughout the year we had to research our ideas, collecting information and references that tie into and/or support the "message" we were trying to convey. Luckily for me I had done a ton of research over the summer anyway, since I had decided what I wanted my portfolio theme to be. So I could focus on the art aspect.
     I have struggled a lot this year in general. Plenty of rumors spread about me thanks to a rather nasty young-lady . Because of my own self-image, the added stress caused by a bully, and the stress of being a senior, art has been my outlet. Spending lunch in the art room and even skipping my non art classes on occasion, I'd have four to five pieces going at once. 
     My portfolio theme is body image.  Weather it is positive or negative has fluctuated with how I have felt about myself  throughout the year. The constant is how I feel the world views the female body. My "characters" are fully figured women with their faces hidden in boxes. The boxes come from the objectification of the female form. In media, not only today but throughout history, a woman's body has been a sexual object. It has to be thin, but not too much so. If its not quite thin enough it's fat and ugly. Don't see too many fully figured ladies on commercials, do we? A women we see in an add is overlooked. Sure she has a pretty face. But faces represent a whole person, with feelings, dreams and soul. Women in media don't get to have "true faces". We don't see them as people, with feelings dreams and soul. They are apart of the add. I took away the faces in my art to represent this, while also making them heavier set in protest.
    The second consistent theme in my pieces are dead/decaying things. Early in the year I used mushrooms, then I transitioned into skeletons. The dead/decaying things represent a sort of internal battle. I focused a lot on gestures and placement from the Renaissance period. When presented in my pieces, the dead things seem to take on a romantic persona. This was intentional. They appear affectionate, for it is easier to approach friendly/affectionate people. And it is easy to buy into the media's idea of what one must look like to be beautiful. They are temptation.
    This portfolio isn't exactly a "body positivity" sort of thing. I don't exactly feel very positive about my body. Most of the time anyway. Individual pieces do praise the body, while others have a darker underlying theme.
    The required minimum for this year's AP class is about 24  pieces. I've made About 40. Not all of them will be presented here. Some haven't been shot while others I don't feel comfortable sharing. Along with my portfolio, I'm presenting these pieces for my capstone.