The idea of "beauty"

The concept of "beauty" has been explored by artists for centuries, but recently artists such as Jenny Saville have begun to explore "real beauty" and the beauty of the human body in its natural state.

Jenny Saville, "Fulcrum"

Jenny Saville, "Strategy"

Jenny Saville, "Trace"

Jenny Saville, "Plan"

Jenny Saville, "Branded"

Associated with the YBA, Saville is best known for her large-scale paintings of naked women. Unlike many other artists, she paints bodies in a way that shows them as they naturally are, rather than the plastic surgery-enhanced bodies and faces that are often broadcast by the media:

"Her feminist subject matter, of obese and sometimes faceless women with vast bodies, partly originates from a trip to America. It was while studying at University of Cincinnati in Ohio that Saville’s fascination with the workings of the human body began to affect her artwork. Much of her work features distorted flesh, high-caliber brush strokes and patches of oil color, while others reveal the surgeon’s mark of a plastic surgery operation. In 1994, Saville spent many hours observing plastic surgery operations in New York City.

Since her debut in 1992, Saville's focus has remained on the female body, slightly deviating into subjects with "floating or indeterminant gender," painting large scale paintings of transgender people. Her published sketches and documents include surgical photographs of liposuction, trauma victims, deformity correction, disease states and transgender patients"

2nd "Love Hearts" piece

My second "Love Hearts" piece is a decorative wooden board, similar in style to those that are currently "on trend", but with a completely different message:

I chose to use pastel colours and the heart shape in keeping with my research into Love Hearts and colour theory, but like my slogan underwear, the messages are handwritten and the colour is hand painted.

This gives a "human" feel to a type of decoration that is often mass produced by machines and sold in bulk, but is in keeping with the vintage style of other decorations.

Slogans/"Love Hearts"

I chose to appropriate Love Hearts in my work, to make a comment about feminism and equality and how these kinds of objects are aimed at/about women. I painted a set of canvases in the same style as the sweets, but instead of being edible they can be used as decorations, in order to make a statement. They also feature sarcastic messages instead of the "cute", kitsch ones on the sweets: