Hannah Calkins
I feel empowered when I take portraits of myself and other women. Because I realize beauty is much more complex than what we see in a fashion magazine and social media, I’m interested in redefining the beauty standard for women and showing the world how I see women, as confident, intelligent, strong, unique, and beautiful. I explore this subject through portraits and collage.
My recent self-portraits emphasize naked and natural beauty in contrast to a lot of the images we see today in which women’s bodies are photoshopped and unrealistic. For example, my self-portraits titled naked and natural focus on my natural face and the natural curves of my body. I have been working with diptychs, image and text, and collage in my self-portraits as I explore different ways to represent myself. The diptych titled rose colored glasses juxtaposes my quirky side and my dry humor, using the repetition of the color red in the sunglasses and my sunburn as a motif. By using collage, I am able to address a multi-layered quality of identity that is more informative. My piece titled emotion and logic, uses self-portraiture and text collage to inform the viewer and create a complex composition, while my piece titled milk and honey, is more straightforward.
I begin projects by researching an idea and looking at other artists’ work for inspiration. I strive to make work that is formally beautiful, often creating complex compositions in which materials are layered and craftsmanship is meticulously employed to create dynamic texture(s) as I experiment and communicate with color.
