Big Idea Book (pages 3 & 4)

Media: charcoal, colored pencil, watercolor

Artist Statement: 
The artist I chose to collaborate with is Daniele Buetti. He works a lot with photography and advertising, focusing on the role media plays in our lives in relationship to our identity. Using images of fashion models, he adds light and alters the image to show a juxtaposition between beauty and despair. He uses light to enchant the viewers and manipulate them in the same way the media tricks our society into forming stereotypes about beauty. The image shown below is one of Buetti's pieces that I used to influence the pages in my book. Using charcoal and colored pencil, I drew a similar-looking woman. However, even though the viewer may perceive her as beautiful, she looks at her reflection in sadness as tears fall from her eyes. Her tears fall into a pool of water that spell out the word "flaw." Over everything else, the woman does not see a true reflection of herself, rather only her flaws. On the fourth page behind the text is a golden framed mirror. I believe that in today's society, women especially, have an obsession with how they are perceived. Because of the images we are exposed to, beauty to many people is a strict term with guidelines and criteria. It is this this coveted quality that is impossible to achieve when we are constantly comparing ourselves.