Abilities of Beauty

My process of meticulously handcrafted realism drawings and the context of being a young disabled woman examines the ability to find empowerment in oneself through beauty. Philosopher Denis Dutton describes beauty as a characteristic of Darwinian theory and a tool of survival. Through my self portraiture series, Abilities of Beauty, I’m focusing on the different versions of oneself and using beauty as a coping mechanism and means of survival to find empowerment in life’s circumstances. I explore ideas of using beauty, vanity, and materiality to build self empowerment and how the dichotomy related to me as an artist living with disabilities being able to use a laborious process to create a beautiful product can evoke feelings of empowerment. The goal of this project is to explore the ways we describe, interpret, and execute beauty and additionally drawn to such things.