top of page
ELISHA COX ART
The real life
'THE REAL LIFE: SELFIE',(2019)
Growing up the common selfie was such an importance in my teenage life. The selfie symbolized not only what you looked like, but also how popular and beautiful you could see yourself in the mirror. Our lives were focused on how many likes our selfies would get. The lower the likes, the less beautiful and popular you were, the higher vise versa. Being shy and quiet during my school and college days I tended to keep out of trouble and keep myself to myself, that commonly meant I was not particularly popular and therefore did not have as many likes. I did not know how to get the perfect selfie nor how I could get more likes, however through the years the pressure began to build up for my selfies to be perfect. I could take hundreds of selfies only to delete them all as I would notice everything wrong with the photo, at my worst I would of zoomed all the way in and check ever inch of my hair, all the way down to every pour. I was obsessed with being worthy, and believed the only way to feel beautiful and worthy was through social media such as Instagram and many likes.
During my time on my exchange in Cyprus i began to express my feelings and pain from experiences surrounding my body and appearance. At this time I took the opportunity in my painting classes to explore my obsessive need for wanting a perfect selfie when growing up. I learnt through the last few
___I'v.jpg)
years I have began to slowly ease this need. Painting was not necessarily a medium I was comfortable with and due to this being a new challenge I thought this would be the perfect time to challenge myself emotionally too. To accept my selfies as they are. By interacting with my face and creating creases and imperfections in which I would of never even considered to show before allowed me to release this sense of being nervous surrounding my face in a
photo. Above shows a few studies I did after a photo shoot where I took hundreds of less appealing selfies of myself. Primarily using my hands, i pulled, prodded and pushed my skin and face into compositions which are never considered beautiful or perfect in the eyes of the public on social media. I wanted to not only allow myself to accept myself in my own skin but to also prove to the public that not everything we post online has to prove we have perfect faces and perfect lives in general. A persons imperfections are a individuals beauty. None has the same face as you, your individual and there is nothing more beautiful then your natural individualness.
As the project progressed I had to take on my next challenge, which was to adapt my drawings into paintings. Starting with paper, during my painting classes we began to explore all the different medias in which we can paint onto or paint with to create a painting. I learnt more about the process of painting and that painting can be in many forms, not just paint to a canvas. This led me down the route of experimenting with acrylic paint and wood as a combination, Two mediums I had never considered to combine before. The acrylic paint and wood matched harmonious, I seemed to have found the materials which both can work well together and represent my concept perfectly. The scrap wood, often seen as less beautiful then a perfect slap of new wood, were individual in their own ways. Just like the subject of my painting, myself, I like the wood am not perfectly airbrushed and edited to be the ideal of which society judges to be beautiful, I am like may others though a natural woman. By using the two together (the imperfect wood and imperfect subject) I am trying to emphasizes to others that just because the work is imperfect it does not define its worth. Just as if I post a selfie which if of myself,with all my imperfections showing, that does not make me or the selfie less worthy or beautiful than one of a model which most likely would have been edited to adapt to how society deems to be perfect. (Studies below.)
A5 Sketch book.
Continuing with the project I decided to experiment with how I was manipulating my face. I was thinking about how to express that the pressures of becoming an ideal is not directly from ones self. By using other objects I was considering the objects stepping in place for the pressures in which society puts in place for young people to feel the need to look like every other airbrushed model. I decided to paint the final image below as it shows that I do inflict the emotional pressure, but I am assisted by the almost invisible pressures society speak to the world on the daily. Society are smart in the way that they do not state that people need to become these models, they only post photos of them everywhere and let us only see people which look so perfect in comparison to our natural beauty.It makes teenagers like myself when i was that age wonder what is wrong with themselves and encourages them to change to become them as they are all we had to look up to at the time. Admittedly, the independent individuals on social media platforms are beginning to emerge and speak the truth about beauty, about how your worthy no matter the size of your body, the size of your spots or any other general imperfections. However, the general media still are encouraging young women in particular to look up to air brushed individuals to encourage them to become them which are not necessarily even possible to become due to editing. I appreciate the change in society, but i thought it was of a great importance for me to express my childhood feelings towards society and the ideal through selfies. I painted these works in order to express self love and acceptance in an 2D art form.
bottom of page