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Description
For nearly all of Western human history, women have been the child-bearers, and not much else. Their sexual ‘alluringness’ became extremely public in France in the early twentieth century, at the time that the beautiful art movement of Art Nouveau was born.
Art Nouveau focuses on beauty and the female aesthetic. Flowing vines, flowers, beautiful women, these are just a few of the themes that are often portrayed in Art Nouveau. I love fell in love with the style as soon as I first lay eyes on it, so I decided to start off the basis of my painting with it.
I’ve long been concerned with the issue of female body image (not self-image, that’s such a broad topic that it deserves multiple paintings unto itself), and Art Nouveau seemed like the perfect medium through which to express this. My idea for this painting is a model, someone ‘beautiful’ whose beauty is being stripped away in a somewhat gruesome fashion.
In my original sketches, my Art History inspiration was fairly evident. I used pastel colors and lots of flowing lines, with the figure filling almost all of the space. However, the finished piece employs darker colors, which somewhat alienate it from the movement.
Another common element of Art Nouveau that I reflected in my piece is a geometric background involving a circle and a surrounding shape that reaches near the edges of the composition. This shape is usually vertical, but I tipped it onto its side to add discomfort for anyone who is familiar with the style of Art Nouveau.
The movement is very stylized, it often uses dark outlines to accentuate or finish certain elements. I used this on the figure, to help make her pop, and to draw her away from realism. I wanted to make her look very realistic, as if she was a photo of a real woman, but I also wanted to make her look altered. That’s why I liked the outline, because it makes her look like a cutout or sticker.
The pattern pieces blowing in the wind are from real patterns. So are the scissors in her hand. The same force that is peeling the background and the flesh is blowing them away. The pattern pieces represent the idea of beauty being strongly connected with fashion, makeup, and other items a woman puts on her body. Don’t get me wrong, I love those things, but I often wonder if I shouldn’t.
The scissors represent a path of liberation. It’s up to the viewer to interpret to what use the scissors had been put to.
Twenty-Three Percent is the percentage under normal weight that most models are. Modeling has a huge influence on what we think of as beauty, so I thought it was a fitting title.

Description
For nearly all of Western human history, women have been the child-bearers, and not much else. Their sexual ‘alluringness’ became extremely public in France in the early twentieth century, at the time that the beautiful art movement of Art Nouveau was born.
Art Nouveau focuses on beauty and the female aesthetic. Flowing vines, flowers, beautiful women, these are just a few of the themes that are often portrayed in Art Nouveau. I love fell in love with the style as soon as I first lay eyes on it, so I decided to start off the basis of my painting with it.
I’ve long been concerned with the issue of female body image (not self-image, that’s such a broad topic that it deserves multiple paintings unto itself), and Art Nouveau seemed like the perfect medium through which to express this. My idea for this painting is a model, someone ‘beautiful’ whose beauty is being stripped away in a somewhat gruesome fashion.
In my original sketches, my Art History inspiration was fairly evident. I used pastel colors and lots of flowing lines, with the figure filling almost all of the space. However, the finished piece employs darker colors, which somewhat alienate it from the movement.
Another common element of Art Nouveau that I reflected in my piece is a geometric background involving a circle and a surrounding shape that reaches near the edges of the composition. This shape is usually vertical, but I tipped it onto its side to add discomfort for anyone who is familiar with the style of Art Nouveau.
The movement is very stylized, it often uses dark outlines to accentuate or finish certain elements. I used this on the figure, to help make her pop, and to draw her away from realism. I wanted to make her look very realistic, as if she was a photo of a real woman, but I also wanted to make her look altered. That’s why I liked the outline, because it makes her look like a cutout or sticker.
The pattern pieces blowing in the wind are from real patterns. So are the scissors in her hand. The same force that is peeling the background and the flesh is blowing them away. The pattern pieces represent the idea of beauty being strongly connected with fashion, makeup, and other items a woman puts on her body. Don’t get me wrong, I love those things, but I often wonder if I shouldn’t.
The scissors represent a path of liberation. It’s up to the viewer to interpret to what use the scissors had been put to.
Twenty-Three Percent is the percentage under normal weight that most models are. Modeling has a huge influence on what we think of as beauty, so I thought it was a fitting title.