What is the True meaning of Beauty?

In the world, beauty is interpreted in a variety of ways. It has a different meaning to everyone and truly follows the quote “ beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” For many reasons women tend to struggle with the idea of beauty.  The media happens to be one of the major reasons for this struggle.  Through various types of advertisement it has been made apparent that it is expected for a woman to hide who and what she really is. In my piece “ what is the true meaning of beauty,” I displayed the influence and pressure that the media has put on women and what they look like.

Emily R, “Is this the TRUE meaning of BEAUTY”, mixed media, 24×18″, 2014

Interpreting beauty is something that I believe everyone strives to accomplish. In my art piece I demonstrated what the media has advertised as beauty. The media has portrayed an image that tells women of this generation that they must change. Their idea consists of an individual covering up and refining every possible flaw in existence. Some may even see this as being told to change who it is that they really are. I demonstrated this idea in my art by adding the collage of magazine clippings that I had cut of from modern fashion magazines.  The clippings consist of different types of makeup, clothes, hair products, fashion icons, and well-known name brands. I chose to do the collage aspect of my art in order to show the various ways that women are expected to cover up and hide who it is that they really are. I also demonstrated this idea of beauty by adding the black borders. The boarders represent the idea of women needing to refine every possible flaw that the may happen to posses.

All together my piece shows that the media expects women to keep themselves put together and hidden despite the chaos that might come with it. This piece is supposed to give simple meaning at first glance, but when it is viewed more deeply it will display a more complex and deep meaning, leavings its viewer to dwell on it.

In my piece “ what is the true meaning of beauty,” I showed to struggle and pressure that exists for a woman when battling stereotype created by the media. The pressure to be beautiful has always been a struggle for women. This is something that surely needs to change!

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Portfolio II students were to create a piece of art based on their own perspective as a teenage woman living in the 21st Century. Students were encouraged to select a topic of interest, to explore its meaning, and to interpret those thoughts/ideas into a 2-dimensional work of art.

Women in Visual Culture

When I think of women in visual culture I think of iconic women whose personalities and looks have made an impact on society. Women have always either been seen as objects of admiration but I see them as trendsetters and movement makers. This project I wanted to feature women in pop culture and more specifically, women in the media. With that in mind, I chose three iconic American women in the media that made an impact on society over time. I captured each woman’s essence and then incorporated the time difference in the color of each person. Finally, I used newspaper for the background to represent their positions in media and their statement in life that made them famous.

Erica B, Classy to Trashy, acrylic and newspaper on canvas panel, 14×18″, 2014

I call this work “Classy to Trashy” because it depicts through famous women icons how women who are in the limelight carry themselves. Women in pop culture have different pressures to make a statement with their looks, actions, and personalities. Over the past six decades there has been an drastic change in the way women portray themselves, especially how they express their sexuality. Audrey Hepburn was a respected, thriving female actress who worked hard for her spotlight and arose as a leading female actor in a male dominant career. Marilyn Monroe emerged into the spotlight from her career in modeling and acting to become America’s major sex symbol. She showed off her curves and promiscuity by becoming an example for women to push the boundaries of looking different than the simple housewife and allowing them to being to express themselves. Miley Cyrus is an ever-changing pop culture icon who loves to put herself out for the world to see whether people appreciate her talents or not. Miley, undoubtedly, had made an impact in today’s society. Her music, clothing, and actions all reflect her promiscuity yet her fans love the way she is a perfect example of being yourself and not caring if anyone were to judge you. Out of the millions of iconic women I believe these three have the perfect balance of complimenting and contrasting each other.

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Portfolio II students were to create a piece of art based on their own perspective as a teenage woman living in the 21st Century. Students were encouraged to select a topic of interest, to explore its meaning, and to interpret those thoughts/ideas into a 2-dimensional work of art.

The GERM project is a collaborative community art project involving local K thru 12 art students and UW-Sheboygan design students.

The idea of this project has been to collaborate with art educators from different teaching levels. The collaboration involves an elementary, middle, high school art teachers and college art students from the University of Wisconsin-Sheboygan and surrounding areas. The idea was to push this project beyond two art teachers and recruit a middle school art teacher from Random Lake School District and UW-Sheboygan design classes.

Sheboygan North High School art students interpreted germs into 3-dimensional clay forms. Random Lake Middle School students then glazed the ceramic germ sculptures. All glaze fired ceramic works were then transported to the UW-Sheboygan campus to design the gallery installation at the UW-Milwaukee Union Art Gallery for the Spring 2014 NCECA conference.

As the ceramic sculptures were presented to the UW-Sheboygan design classes, we discussed various ways to exhibit the works. The typical pedestal and wall mounting techniques seemed easy enough.  However, we were looking for innovative ways to display this work. Examples of innovative and unconventional installations of ceramic artwork were researched and examined.

UWS Students then began to think about the installation of the work as part of the art form in itself. After further consideration, the students wanted to use the dinner party motif to display the germs, referencing and quoting a well-known ceramics artist’s installation. 

Participating art teachers and schools are Jen Dahl (Forrest Street Early Learning Center), Brian Sommersberger (Random Lake Middle School), Frank Juarez (Sheboygan North High School), and Tom Uebelherr (UW-Sheboygan).