Masterpieces is a reaction to the pressures of appearance placed on today’s society. In this series I explore the nude throughout art history, while appropriating images from contemporary fitness, fashion, celebrity and pornographic magazines. An art historical reference is used to comment on the precedent set as to how the nude is viewed in imagery. This precedent evolved through the process that a young artist used to learn their craft. Often an apprentice would begin the learning process by copying a master’s painting. Some painters learned to combine sketches of different body parts to create a whole person. Occasionally artists would base their paintings off of sculptures and other forms of art and not create the new imagery from life. All of these practices began to push the illusion of the beautiful beyond the observable expectations of the viewer.

In contemporary culture, our constant pursuit of perfection and beauty has continued to be pushed due to the bombardment of images that have been heavily manipulated with digital technology. Today, technicians can easily shed pounds from a models body, remove unflattering marks, augment breast size and shape, increase muscle tone, and improve hair and makeup without the need for a stylist.  Due to these practices, many people are forced to engage in strict diets, take on strenuous fitness routines, develop eating disorders, and undergo painful plastic surgeries in order to emulate a look more widely accepted by our society and culture.

Each model in Masterpieces can consist of ten to thirty different parts; each part comes from different magazine photographs. The parts are then digitally collaged to create a fabricated, monstrous person that is as much a comment on the people created by the magazines, as it is on the strains people can place on their bodies to achieve the appearance found in the media. Each painting is chosen for its beauty and execution but also for the way the author of the image chose to represent the intended allegory. I then deconstruct this intended allegory into a story that allows the viewer to question how sexual taboos are viewed in today’s culture.