Rachel Meyerson. April 29, 2020. Farmington Hills, Michigan, USA.
“Beauty" is seen as smooth skin, an even complexion, and no body hair in sight. This self portrait challenges this idea, in order to create art out of a canvas that I often perceive as ugly, my body. Painting over this photograph digitally allowed me to add colors and create shapes that emphasized my body's natural curves and textures, which changed the original perception of the base image. There is also an element of natural versus artificial. Although the base image is untouched, by painting over it I am introducing artificial elements with just a few clicks on my computer. This shows us how easy it is to manipulate images and how not everything we see as beautiful is real.