"R" Rated Art*
(Collection of paintings that requires your parents' permission to be viewed, if you're under 18 years of age)
"I inherited a painting and a violin which turned out to be a Rembrandt and a Stradivarius. Unfortunately, Rembrandt made lousy violins and Stradivarius was a terrible painter."
Tommy Cooper
"No degree of dullness can safeguard a work against the determination of critics to find it fascinating."
Harold Rosenberg
"Very few people possess true artistic ability. It is therefore both unseemly and unproductive to irritate the situation by making an effort. If you have a burning, restless urge to write or paint, simply eat something sweet and the feeling will pass."
Fran Lebowitz
As an artist I've had my share of painting nude people. I found it to be a very freeing experience in a sense that it numbs you down so much that when you see an old overweight woman laying topless on a beach with her breast laying by her sides - you don't become nauseous.
On a more serious note, I would strongly suggest that everybody should take at least one figure drawing class, because it makes people less judgmental about the physiques of others, as well as less conscious about their own. Ideally, figure drawing teaches students that any body can be beautiful. It enables a person to see a human body as lines and shapes as opposed to forms deemed unattractive by the modern standards of beauty. Please don't get me wrong I'm not pleading the case that there is anything positive about being overweight. I know from my own experience that when I exercise and eat right I feel better physically and mentally.
When it comes to body images there is a huge hypocrisy in our society that everyone agrees is very harmful to women. On one hand, Hollywood is trying to make women believe that there is nothing wrong with being overweight by producing movies like Shrek, Shallow Hal and Hairspray. On the other hand, celebrities themselves employ personal trainers and dieticians to appear skinny and healthy on the screen and in the media. I think if Hollywood wants to insist on being some kind of guiding light for the rest of us, ignorant simpletons, it should drop the hypocrisy and be honest about the importance of being and looking healthy...
To conclude my ramblings: a body doesn't have to be perfect to be beautiful, but it's probably better for the owner of the body if there are no chances of it being stuck in a beer barrel.
