Body Positive Yoga

Late last year I took a yoga class as part of essentially "practicing what I preach". I wanted to put my radical self love to work in my life and what I found was that yoga only made me appreciate my body even more and love what it was capable of. The only problem was that I was one of the very few plus sized women in that class and I certainly was the biggest, and while I could do nearly every pose quite well, there were some poses that I could not do, not because I was incapable or not flexible enough, but because my belly got in the way. So instead of hating my belly, and therefore going against everything I stand for and make work about, I turned to this wonderful resource called Body Positive Yoga which not only empowered to keep loving my body but also showed me other poses I could do to get the same stretch but not be mad at my belly and showed me beautiful pictures of gorgeous, fat women doing poses that many thinner people cannot due. This heightened awareness of self has inspired me greatly over the past year and continues to do so today.

Dances With Fat

One of the other website that provides me with endless information and inspiration is a blog run by the wonderful Ragen Chastain. DWF daily discusses and argues that you can be both fat AND healthy. Chastain is considered to be 'super obese' yet she is considered extremely healthy and named her blog because she is an incredible dancer. I love reading her articles and seeing pictures of her doing standing toe touches, but my favorite part is her 'read my hate mail' section. She actually posts the hurtful comments and ignorance driven hate mail that she receives. She take these terrible comments and advertises on the page so that her hate mail actually pays her, which is wonderful because it is, in a sense, a proverbial slap in the face to the people who sent them originally.

Adipositivity

ad·i·pose

[ad-uh-pohs]

adjective

1.

fatty; consisting of, resembling, or relating to fat.

pos·i·tiv·i·ty

[poz-i-tiv-i-tee]  Show IPA

noun, plural pos·i·tiv·i·ties.

1.

the state or character of being positive: a positivity that accepts the world as it is.

The Adipositivity Project is a website that has given me a lot of inspiration of the last semester. At adipositivity, they post a lot of pictures of both women and men of all ages and races who have proudly accepted their bodies and show them proudly for everyone. This is in direct contrast that people who's bodies that are big are automatically deemed ugly, when in all actually, all bodies are beautiful. I was introduced to this wonderful website when I showed my work to my senior thesis class at the beginning of the semester. A classmate suggested I check it out and upon doing so I ended up finding some of very valuable inspiration that I needed desperately this semester.

Currently, the Adipositivity website is down due to a computer crash and has been down since the end of August. However much of website's previous content has since been posted on tumblr, which I follow regularly. 

Yikes....

This semester has been extremely stressful. I have fallen extremely behind in posting regularly on this blog, but I did post a lot on my personal blog about how was I was feeling, so this week I will be posting a lot this week to catch up. So sit back, buckle up and get ready for a run down of how my semester has been treating me artistically, emotionally and mentally.

How to make your own paint

Paint is expensive. Grant you, you are paying for quality so if you make your own paint, don't expect the same movability or quality as that made by the professionals. I make my own paint from time to time, for various reasons, whether they be money related or if it has a specific correlation to my work, like using makeup as pigment to tint my paint, which goes well with my ongoing theme of body image and beauty standards.

In this blog post, I'm going to show you how easy it is to make your own paint. It's easy to make a variety of paints with things you probably have at your house right now.

To make a paint that is thick and dimensional, like puffy paint, all you have to do is mix a few simple ingredients.

• 1/2 cup salt
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/4-1/2 water
• Food coloring or other pigments

Combine all these ingredients and slowly mix in the water until it is the consistency of a milkshake. Add colorant until you achieve your desired colored. 

However, for a looser paint that you can spread with a brush, take the above recipe and add a half teaspoon of vegetable oil and boil the ingredients so that ingredients blend into a smooth mixture. This is important if you are using a dry colorant.

I learned how to do this thanks to about.com

ArtWorks Cincinnati

Last week, we visited ArtWorks. Their website describes them as such "ArtWorks is a non-profit arts organization that empowers and inspires the creative community to transform our everyday environments through employment, apprenticeships, education, community partnerships, and civic engagement".

ArtWorks is a truly wonderful organization and I have gotten the wonderful opportunity to paint a mural with them. However, I was mildly disappointed in this field trip. I didn't feel like I gained any knowledge about ArtWorks that I didn't already know plus I was utterly humiliated when Tamara Harkavy, founder and artistic director of ArtWorks asked me to tell everyone about my experience and struggles involved in the Helentown mural project with which I was associated with. I have social anxiety and she put me on the spot, which nearly sent me into a panic attack and I completely froze up and couldn't think about anything but every one's eyes on me. Then the field trip ran over and we nearly got a ticket because our meter ran over. I would like to go back and actually get to tour the facilities and actually get to learn more about the business besides that which you can find on their website.

The Helentown Mural that I helped paint!

Cedric Michael Cox

Last month Cedric Michael Cox came in and visited our class. His work is so very different from mine (but awesome nonetheless), but I was really taken by him as a person. A friend of mine has worked as an intern for him several times and she told me that he is awesome a happy and chipper person and a great, down to earth artist who is always full of wonderful advice.

I don't remember the specifics of the presentation but what I really enjoyed about him was that his presentation was a grim look into the future. He wasn't angry or bitter about his life or the art community, but was as eager and excited as a college student who has just graduated and has his entire future ahead of him. He provided useful advice on how to not be a starving artist, like lowering your expectations and living expenses and how to grants and scholarships, while still maintaining that fervor for life and your art, so you don't end up as a angry old man, bitter because you never 'made it'. Be happy and make the art that you need to keep yourself sane.

Like I said, he was a truly inspiration artist and speaker. For more information on him, please visit his personal art blog.