Title: Body Size: 24x36 (res. 170) Medium: Digital Manipulation Completion date: November 2021 Exhibition Text: The objective for this piece to share a personal belief or experience that has shaped the person you are. Personally, I chose to write about my struggles with body image. This digital collage was inspired by the work of Stephen Mcmennamy. |
For as long as I can remember, I have struggled with body image as I am sure many young girls have. As young as fourth grade, I remember going to sleep each night, praying that I woke up with a new body, my search history reading things like “How to grow bigger boobs” and “Exercises to get wider hips”. By seventh grade I kept a measuring tape on my bedside table, which I would regularly measure my body with. In ninth grade I was asking myself why I got excited when I realized I had accidentally skipped meals. This epidemic of body dissatisfaction has been perpetuated in the last ten years by social media, reality tv, and unrealistic beauty standards placed on girls at a very young age. The media’s take on what a perfect body looks like is not attainable for most without surgery and photo-retouching. And deep down I knew this, but this idea of getting this “perfect body” was enough to make me instill habits and rules for myself. Do not go to sleep without working out for at least a half-hour. Wait to eat until you are starving. Skip breakfast because who really needs it anyway? Alone, though bad, these habits were not detrimental to my physical health, but they destroyed my mental health. This constant feeling of never measuring up was inevitable when comparing myself to models and people I saw on social media. The truth is, even the faces behind the magazine covers do not look like they do on the cover of Cosmopolitan or Vogue. I was comparing the one-snap photo I took on my smartphone, to a highly edited photo taken by an experienced cameraman of a woman whose job is to know what her good angles are. The bodies on magazine covers and social media have been molded through Photoshop and cosmetic procedures to fit the beauty standards and it was unrealistic for me to compare myself to these unattainable standards. The older I have gotten, the more comfortable I have become with accepting my body for what it is, a body. My digital collage Body represents the struggles I have faced to get to a point where I can confidently look in the mirror. The symbolism of the measuring tape represents a struggle with body image that I purposefully made to be interpreted differently by every viewer in order to allow for a personal connection to the piece from the viewer.
- Inspiration-
Mcmennamy, Stephen (combophoto) "crab leg + excavator" Instagram, November 19, 2014 https://www.instagram.com/p/vmedOVnG5f/?utm_medium=copy_link
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When looking for digital artists to take inspiration from, I came across Stephen Mcmennamy, an artist who clips images together to create a new picture. I decided to take inspiration from his work and clip together pictures to create a message. I was directly inspired by his artistic and technical decisions. Though i didn't utilize his dyptic styles, I pasted images on my original photo to tell a story. Having Stephen Mcmennamy as my inspiration artist didn't effect the composition of my piece as much as it did the Photoshop techniques of it. Mcmennamy uses Photoshop to piece together different objects to form clean, seamless images. Because of this, when making my piece, I spent extra time trying to make it look like the measuring tape was almost a part of my body and not copied and pasted on in the same way Mcmennany's pieces seem to blend together seamlessly.
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- Experimentation and Process -
Pretty early on in my planning stage, I realized I wanted to do something relating to body image and the struggles that come with living as a teen girl in a world with unrealistic beauty standards. I decided to create some planning sketches detailing different approaches I could take with my collage. Some things I played with were the idea of utilizing a mirror to give a sort of reflective feeling to the piece. In addition, I toyed with using measuring tapes around my body. This is something I ended up doing in my final piece. The sketch I ended up recreating most was the second one. I liked the reflective aspect of it and the way the measuring tapes representing body image struggles could be interpenetrated and applicable to many viewers. In my planning stage, I thought about how I'd utilize color in my piece. Similar to my inspiration, I wanted to utilize a pretty basic color pallet and for that reason, in my planning, I decided I would wear minimalistic black clothes in order to not distract from the message of the piece. When thinking about space, I wanted to focus the main mass of the composition in the mirror with the addition of the back of my head and body in the lower right corner.
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(photo A)
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(photo B)
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To the right were my two favorite pictures I took when planning how I wanted to stand in my digital collage. I was conflicted because I loved the barbie-like stance and amount of my body shown in the rightmost picture but thought the addition of my body in the foreground of the leftmost picture was good for the project. Since I couldn't decide between one or the other, I decided to import my body in the foreground from photo A into photo B. This created a third photo with a composite of the aspects of A and B that i liked.
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(photo AB)
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To the left is image AB, created out of the foreground of image A and the background of image B. I spent some time playing with where I wanted the person looking into the mirror to be. Since it was a cutout, I was able to do this. I decided on the location you can see to the left because it seemed the most natural. Below is examples of how the image would have looked different depending on where I placed myself in the image. This differences are minor but if you look closely, you can see my body positioned differently from farthest left to farthest right. Since I was able to move this layer around, it was important to ensure that the proportions were still in check.
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Next, I took picture of my flexible tape measure. With these images, I used the lasso tool in Photoshop to cut them out and then place them all alone my body in a sort of mummy-ish manner. Unintentionally, the tape measures almost created a sash across my body that almost looked like one from a pageant. This accidental symbolism of a barbie-like stance accompanied by a beauty pageant sash ties well with the overall unity of this project.
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- Critique -
Though at first glace, the link between my digital collage and Stephen Mcmennamy's isn't initially evident however, the stylistic similarities are there if you look closely. Both pieces share elements and principles such as color, scale, space and unity.
Similarities:Use of Photoshop This one is pretty obvious however still notable. Both Mcmennamy and I used Photoshop to create a new image out of original raw images.
Clean cuts both Mcmennamy and I used precise cuts in order to create a seamless collage. Simple color pallet Both my inspiration photos and my own digital collage had limited color pallets as the composition of the pieces were the focus. Detail The images both have a similar amount of detail in the raw photographs and final art piece Differences:Diptych vs singular image While Mcmennamy's pictures are diptychs, meaning there is a clear split in the middle seperating two complimentary pieces, my digital collage was one image with no split.
Backround As the majority of Mcmennamy's pieces have a pretty simple backround of one color, mine is very evidently the inside of my bathroom and has many objects. |
- Reflection -
Though I didn't expect this project to be anything more then an assignment, I discovered a lot about myself through it. When writing the complimentary essay to the collage, I found that I was admitting things to myself in the writing that I had never said to my friends, family or even myself. My over-analyzation of my body wasn't something I had ever really put much thought towards. Furthermore, even looking at the raw photos i took for the project was difficult. Doing an entire collage and essay surrounding the concept gave me adequate time to reflect on the body image struggles I and many teens face. This project gifted me with incredible insight and artistically challenged me to a great extent. I enjoyed making a piece of art that required elements of personal reflection as well as artistic talent. Art skill wise, I'm proud of the detail and time I put into this piece. The final result definitely reflected the time and effort put into the artwork. In the future, I want to experiment more with creating fantastical and playful images in Photoshop.
Act Questions:
Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause effect relationship between your inspiration and its effect on your artwork?
Having Stephen Mcmennamy as my inspiration artist didn't effect the composition of my piece as much as it did the Photoshop techniques of it. Mcmennamy uses Photoshop to piece together different objects to form clean, seamless images. Because of this, when making my piece, i spent extra time trying to make it look like the measuring tape was almost a part of my body and not copied and pasted on.
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
Stephen Mcmennamy's approach to his art is playful. He fuses images together without any implied or alluded profound meaning.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
During the research portion of this piece. I learned who Stephen Mcmennamy was, a small artist who gained traction on Instagram for his digital collages where he fuses two images together to make a light-hearted new image. In a few sites about him, I read excerpts about Mcmennamy's firsthand experience with being a digital artist, I gained further insight as to what it's like to try to gain traction as a small artist especially digitally and during the era of COVID19.
What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
For this specific piece, I really wanted to focus my research around learning more about how to use photoshop. In addition to tutorials by Mr. Chad, I watched many videos on the ins and outs of Photoshop and PhotoPea. This research will make itself useful in my future adventures with digital art.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
During my research, i learned that when the craftmanship is clean enough, viewers might not recognize the digital editing on the first look in this given style of digital artwork
Having Stephen Mcmennamy as my inspiration artist didn't effect the composition of my piece as much as it did the Photoshop techniques of it. Mcmennamy uses Photoshop to piece together different objects to form clean, seamless images. Because of this, when making my piece, i spent extra time trying to make it look like the measuring tape was almost a part of my body and not copied and pasted on.
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
Stephen Mcmennamy's approach to his art is playful. He fuses images together without any implied or alluded profound meaning.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
During the research portion of this piece. I learned who Stephen Mcmennamy was, a small artist who gained traction on Instagram for his digital collages where he fuses two images together to make a light-hearted new image. In a few sites about him, I read excerpts about Mcmennamy's firsthand experience with being a digital artist, I gained further insight as to what it's like to try to gain traction as a small artist especially digitally and during the era of COVID19.
What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
For this specific piece, I really wanted to focus my research around learning more about how to use photoshop. In addition to tutorials by Mr. Chad, I watched many videos on the ins and outs of Photoshop and PhotoPea. This research will make itself useful in my future adventures with digital art.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
During my research, i learned that when the craftmanship is clean enough, viewers might not recognize the digital editing on the first look in this given style of digital artwork
Bibliography:
Mcmennamy, Stephen (combophoto) "headphones + donuts" Instagram, March 12, 2020 https://www.instagram.com/p/B9pxwZwgsHu/
Mcmennamy, Stephen (combophoto) "crab leg + excavator" Instagram, November 19, 2014 https://www.instagram.com/p/vmedOVnG5f/?utm_medium=copy_link