Pretty Ugly

Historically, art has been and continues to be dominated by men. Art history is full of male interpretations of the female nude for their own gaze, fetishization and in the general interest of men. Marketing and advertisement use women’s bodies to make money, yet a woman selling her own body is illegal. “Pretty Ugly” is a series of mixed media work that studies the juxtaposition of color, texture, technique, and material with the female body. Drawing from nudes historically shot by male viewpoints, this body of work is recreating them from the female perspective. Pushing boundaries set for women, I use painting, drawing, and collage to illustrate things people have said to me and other women I know. The work draws attention to things not necessarily yearning for your view. “Pretty Ugly” challenges the rules of what women can and cannot as women do with their body while overlaying things projected.

This work explores the subtle and not so subtle things positive and negative about being a woman. The work itself educates women on positivity of being a woman yet calls attention to things like catcalling and mansplaining. I hope this work will encourage conversations of micro aggressive behavior towards women. Each piece will discuss things that come up; girls turning into women and the things we face every day in a world where men seem to be in control