This is the before and after of my self portrait project on Self-Empowerment.
This is my final self portrait project. My self portrait is called Self- Empowered. This self portrait has an image of my full on face and a sketched nude female upper body underneath of my image. I painted one side with the colors blue, purple, and green. I painted the other side a bright color (Orange and brown.) The darker side for me is tranquility; it is supposed to be my calm side, and the brighter side is supposed to be my fierce side. Each side has different words that have meaning behind them (which I'll explain in class.) I used the soft, kind words on the darker side (which is supposed to be the calmer side of me), and I put on the other side, words that are supposed to be powerful for the female. All the words are supposed to be uplifting and should help and encourage every woman who reads this to stand up for their rights, to feel empowered, and to feel comfortable in their own skin.
I used John Berger for my self portrait because I can relate to his explanation on how women and men are portrayed differently and how they have different representations in this world. The googly eyes on my face represent the men surveying me. I used two red googly eyes on the nipples, as well. I decided to put the red color of eyes on the nipples because that is a sexual part of the body. Also, red for the nipples means romance, and of course, the eyes are the men surveying my body, especially the breasts. I decided to sketch the breasts as perfect and perky as possible with the smallest nipples. Why ? Well, almost all men are introduced to perfect perky breasts when watching porn, movies, and TV shows. The media for years has shown perfect bodies on social media and all. This to me is not okay at all because they are giving false information about the female body. Everyone is different, and every female has different bodies. Every breast comes in different shapes, colors, and all. These men go on having wrong expectations on how the female body should be. Once the men is in contact with an actual natural female body, they are confused, disappointed, and even shame these unique bodies. This goes back to making us, females, feel insecure/ self conscious about our bodies. When we become self conscious about our bodies, we end up surveying ourselves because of how men view us, which leads to us thinking that we are "objects," when really, we are so much more than that. Us, Women, face a lot of judgement, especially from men. We are shamed most of the time for being who we truly are and embracing our perfectly imperfect bodies. I wanted to talk about this in class because it is a topic everyone should talk about. It is an important topic that should be talked about and recognized because we have more to offer than our bodies. I wanted to share through my self portrait how I feel when it comes to gender inequality, when it comes to my image, and when it comes to being who I truly am. I put these words as a reminder that being a woman is an incredible thing. I want every girl/ woman to feel they are worthy when reading these words, too. This self portrait is supposed to remind me and the rest of us, females, that being different and who you really are what makes us valuable and unique.
This self portrait should make me (and every other female) feel empowered of themselves.Still today, we are facing gender inequality and are viewed as just objects, and honestly, it is time to break the stereotype of females.. Also, I decided to cover my eyes with yellow googly eyes, to make it seem like I have super powers. The yellow eyes represent light, power, and authority. My final self portrait is a little bit different to the midterm self portrait because on the midterm, I drew a silhouette with images that represent me, my culture, and my interests. The final self portrait is more confused on feminism, gender inequality, body positivity, and self love. It's a self portrait of me, but any female can relate to me. I made the choice to make my self portrait the way it is because it is a topic that should be talked about more , and also to make females (including myself) feel valuable with the uplifting words I put on the self portrait. The content of this image is me and the body image. The process of this portrait was kind of tedious. I used liquitex acrylic paint, magazine cut out words, I sketched with my pencil, I drew, I used nude Crayon for the upper body (breasts), I also used colorful googly eyes to make my project look very alive,colorful, different, and powerful. The colors being vibrant are to represent us females. Doing this final portrait made me feel much better about myself. After reading these words, it made me feel super empowered of myself. I know others reading this will be touched and feel more confident because I know it worked for me. I consider my work a graphic print because I made it. I feel this self portrait can be compared to Cindy Sherman's work because I look different and my work looks a bit creepy and sexual. What influenced these chances were the readings of John Berger, and the work of Cindy Sherman. I wanted my self portrait to not only represent me and my struggles. I know other women may experience the same feeling I feel and the judgement as a woman. John berger helped me a lot create this self portrait because it taught me a way to express how I truly feel about myself, gender inequality, and surveyance through an image of myself.
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