Friday, February 15, 2008

The Beautiful Women Project

A few years ago I went to a women's night out dinner and met artist Cheryl-Ann Webster. At the time she was just starting to undertake an art project that to this day still inspires me. It all started with a simple conversation she had with her 13 year old daughter about her best friend, also 13, who was saving up money for a boob job. Cheryl was floored (as were we all) and decided to start the Beautiful Women Project in hopes of inspiring positive thoughts about the female body in all it's forms.

Cheryl, cast 120 female chests from the collar bone to the hip bone and decorated each of them with an essence she picked up from conversations she had with them. It's been a labor intensive project but it isn't over. She's still trying to get the word out via gallery showings of the busts anywhere she can afford to send them and set them up. She also does informative discussions on self-esteem and body image at the same time.

She's had a number of showings (I went twice!) so far and all have been successful drawing the attention of girls of all ages as well as the men in their lives. Recently to help with costs (and to get a wider audience) Cheryl-Ann and Laurie Gordon produced a book about the endeavor highlighting the process and providing anecdotes about each bust.

My copy arrived today. And I have to say it is much better than I thought it would be from the Lulu.com description. It's a heavy semi-gloss soft cover about the size of a magazine. I'm about half way through and I have to say that it is wonderful to be able to revisit the busts at my leisure and to read about the artists interpretation of each one. I highly recommend purchasing this book which is $30 (costs go towards future showings) and if you get the chance to check out the showing.

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Topic Links
* Interview with Artist Cheryl-Ann Webster
* Beautiful Women Project Gallery Showing
* Purchase Beautiful Women Project: The Book from Lulu

2 comments:

The Big Girl Blog! said...

Amazing, and so important.

Jen said...

Hey I just helped Cheryl-Ann set up the exhibit at the Hamilton YMCA.
It's very inspirational and I hope it is a step toward battling the effects of the Media on our perspectives of our own beauty. I encourage you to go see it. It begins March 6th.