I had many ideas for the Entangled project. I was thinking about slavery, human rights, and war. But, I just couldn't think of any symbols that correlated to those concepts. So then, I started to think about what affected me personally. What came to my mind was how women are portrayed in the media vs. the reality of how women are really like. And I thought about the struggle that many women and teens go through, believing they are not perfect. This was an issue that I believe should be brought to the attention of everyone in order to search, as a society, for a solution. No one (men and women) should have to think that they are not the ideal, that their body is revolting, or that they do not behave the way expected of them. This topic was what influenced and sparked my idea for my project. I also knew that the concept of the project was entangled, so I had to find a way to incorporate that into my artwork. After some time I came up with the idea of using caution tape and having it wrapped around the body. It felt right to me. It also represented the fact that often time people believe certain women are taboo, if they do not meet imaginary guidelines, which can include weight and looks.
I used this image to help me draw the caution tape. I also used online videos to look at the way women's bodies were drawn and how to make each part of her body to look proportional to the other.
This was my sketch for the Entangled project.
After this sketch I was still unhappy with how it was turning out. The general shape was nice, but I didn't like how the tape was placed around her body because it looked unrealistic. I also felt hat her knees were way too small and parts of her body weren't really proportional to each other. I tried drawing another sketch which I hoped would turn into my final piece, but that one didn't turn out how I expected either. I was feeling impatient and dejected at this point. However, I remembered that art doesn't come easily to everyone, and that there will be failures along the way, before success eventually follows. I discarded the second sketch because before I drew it I cut the paper and made it shorter. I ended up zooming into the upper portion of the woman' body and there was no room left to show the rest of her. I had underestimated the size of the paper I would need and I vowed that I wouldn't make that mistake again with the final piece. I started on the final piece because I knew how I wanted everything to look like and it was etched into my brain. With my final piece I made sure the tape looked realistic when it wrapped around her body. I also fixed the size of her knees and boobs so that they could be proportional to the rest of her. I decided to name my piece when I was finished with it Define Perfection. That's because some might believe perfection is only the stick thin girl. However, every woman embodies perfection in her own way. I strongly believe that this is an important message that needs to reach everyone.
This is my final piece after I made all the changes I had to.