‘Objectified Self-Portrait’ was simply a self-portrait in concept. When I presented it in my college art class, however, it was brought to my intention the potentially degrading nature of displaying a female body in a suggestive pose without the top of her head present. After this comment, I began looking back at other paintings of female figures I had created and noticed that omitting the top of the head was a common practice of mine. I started to think of why I had been doing this to my women. The interesting thing is that I always gave them mouths, which means they have voices, they are just lacking a place to keep their brains.

As a dancer, the part of me that was important and useful was my body. In retrospect, I do not feel that this portrait can be so simply defined as being degrading to women, but rather reflected the messages that so many women receive from their peers and our culture.

The content and pallet are relevant to my current work in reference to my fascination with the beauty of the female form and my preference to work in a monochromatic pallet. I have no doubt that I will continue to make pieces that celebrate the beauty of women. I also love working with the color green and its many shades and tints. Green is a strong color that brings to mind images of our military or vignettes of nature, or American currency, etc. It is a loaded color and I enjoy experimenting with the potential of its connotations.