I am a Feminist, but man that is such a dirty word nowadays. I prefer the word Individualist. Yes, I am an Individualist. “Feminist Journey to Self-Identification” is a body of work that expresses my journey through self-identification as a woman in this world. We all struggle figuring out who we are in this world and I found my way through artistic expression. This body of work challenges ideas about self-image, induces female power, contradicts the male gaze with the female gaze, criticizes the make-up and fashion industries, and even explores my own freedom in self-expression.
This work was instrumental in discovering who I am and accepting myself so I could then understand who I am according to God and who He says I am. It is hard to have self-esteem enough to believe that God loves us how we are, but it is true! Once I figured out who I was as an individual through this body of work, I was then able to understand why God would love me. God loves unconditionally and beyond any love I could have for anyone, including myself.
More about my feminist views depicted through my art
My feminist work surrounds concepts of female power, female oppression, search for my identity as a woman, critiques on make-up and fashion industries, and much more. Particularly, this work is a personal reflection based on radical feminism combined with liberal feminism. The main difference between my art and that of the radicals is that the liberal feminist influence makes it more individually tailored, in that I aim to reclaim my body and power without impolite images within my expression of it. Don’t get me wrong, I am a
whole-hearted feminist, but I hate the association with the word. Instead, I prefer to be called an egalitarian, not because I don’t want to claim feminism, but because the topic of my current work reflects my personal experience as a woman in this world and discovering who I am. In this, I also represent feminism in the context of women’s power, purpose, and the beauty of self-image. I have a huge respect for radical feminist artwork, though I find that this art expresses my target concept in more profane ways. I want to invite in even the
conservative lives to this art space and concept. In other words, I want to invite those who may not join in the viewing of extreme colloquial images of female bodies. I am a Christian woman discovering who I am and accepting myself so I could then understand who I am according to God and who He says I am. I am pro-intersectionality when it comes to my feminist beliefs, but I am not projecting the popular intersectional feminism of today. This is because I do this art to find myself and my power (I am a woman after all) and to spread love and equality with my Christ .