My Latest, Latest Masterpiece!
Here’s a new painting for you to look at. After I did ‘Vignette #1: Skies and Eyes’ I decided that some of the ideas in the different sections needed exploring. This new piece is the second section from ’Vignette #1…’ expanded and explored to a further degree.
It’s always the goal of my artwork to have a voice, after all this is how I communicate with the world, so this painting asks the question ’What is beauty?’ Here we have two interesting characters which may be considered ugly, even horrific because of the way they look coming out from behind their protective barrier to ask that very question. When I initially came up with the idea, it gave rise to the question ‘If these ‘monsters’ do decide to show themselves, what would they be doing?’ So I’ve painted them embedded in their investigation of what it means to be Cute. Cuteness is indicative of something that is naive but beautiful all the same and is therefore lovable. I used a rubber duck as their subject figuring that rubber ducks have universal appeal as things which are considered cute. Because of their curiousity, I’ve tentatively titled the piece “An Investigation of Cute”. You can find a larger version of it in this gallery.
On the left hand side a multi-eyed, multi-tentacled critter with spiky teeth is reading a blueprint, making notes and even trying to transform itself into the form of a rubber duck.
On the right hand side a curious, single-eyed, veiny character is deep into its scrutiny of an actual rubber duck using a magnifying glass and a steel pick to make its job easier.
I think this painting speaks deeply of our societal need to belong. We are constantly bombarded by messages telling us what ‘Beautiful’ is and how we should go about acheiving this level of physical perfection in order to be one of the in-crowd. The sayings ‘Beauty is only skin deep’ and ‘It’s what’s inside that counts’ don’t seem to carry a lot of weight beyond one-on-one conversations, and we’ll all find ourselves from time to time bowing to societal pressure to change something about ourselves which is deemed unsightly or ugly.
Carrying around a few extra pounds? Better hit the gym, shoot for a body the supermodels are walking around in. Losing your hair? Well, there’s a myriad of haircare solutions on the market for you! Get a toupee. Get a hair transplant. Hell, they even have hair in a spray can these days. Something else wrong with you? Well there’s isn’t a boutique, mall or merchant who can’t help you in some way or other. Look to Hollywood. Those glamourous people will give you the answer.
It’s probably never occured to many people that how they look now is how they’re supposed to look. What’s wrong with being bald? What’s wrong with being heavyset? I myself eat very healthy and exercise regularly and yet I’m not sveldt. I don’t look like an underwear model and I never will. I’ve looked the way I look now for 10 years and I’ll continue to look this way (hopefully) until I’m old and withered. My eating habits keep me healthy and my exercise regime keeps me strong and fit. What more should I want?
‘An Investigation of Cute’ delves deep into our insecurities about how we look and how others see us. When we’re born, our minds are unformed. I won’t say they’re blank, they’re just undeveloped. Our bodies aren’t though. Our physical nature at birth is far more advanced then our mental state and it’s these physical attributes we’re born with that people use to designate our value at a very early age.
It’s no wonder that this thinking, the placing of status on physicality, haunts us as we grow and develop. It’s the first way we’re quantified. Based on what I see on the limited amount of television I watch and the fashion/pulp magazines I view at the local shops, this seems to be an ongoing societal malady. Red carpet exposes, derisive Yahoo articles about what not to wear, Axe deodorant ads about what women really want–with all this input about how to appear, it’s a wonder any of us dare step foot outside our frontdoor.
Ultimately the message of the piece is ‘accept yourself for who you are’. For those of you who have read my other posts, I may seem a bit like a broken record but it’s no easy task to accept yourself: the way you look, the way you think, the way you feel.
‘An Investigation of Cute’ brings all these ideas and ills to the surface. It is my hope that through repeated viewings of the work I can help to influence people away from the type of thinking that becomes demoralizing and detrimental to personal fulfillment. There’s no reason why all of us shouldn’t be considered beautiful. When we believe it ourselves, others will have no choice but to accept the reality of it.
For now, that is all. Goodnight.
