Body Art And Beyond; An Exercise In Humanity

A VISUAL EXERCISE

After viewing the amazing video portraying some stunning works of body art, I would like for you to take a few minutes and imagine that the entire world of art is gone. Like a wave of a magic wand, art has been completely wiped off the face of the planet. Museums and galleries are gone. There are no more paintings on walls just barren partitions dividing rooms. Statues and sculptures are missing from landmarks and there are no more murals within cities. Everything just seems empty without any personality. In addition, music, live theatre and films are a thing of the past. Any and all things embodying art are history. Body art is gone too. This includes: tattoos, piercings, cosmetics, and all alterations or modifications to the human body. Television, radio and books still exist but for informational purposes only. Cell phones also remain but solely for communication. Those cute little emoji’s that everyone loves to send family and love ones are no more! Take a few minutes and imagine your life now as the only remnants left of art are within your memory. Oh, before I forget, while all art is now extinct, there is something weird that has happened to you. You are completely tattooed and now have piercings adorning your nose, eyebrow and lip. Stay tuned because this is about to get interesting.

In addition to no art in this make shift world except for your newly given appearance, everyone else looks exactly the same. Yes, I have added cloning into this exercise. All males and females have dark eyes and hair and extremely pale skin. Everyone is dressed in business attire, brown and black, and the only outwardly differentiating trait between males and females besides height and weight (5”7’, 170lbs for men & 5’4’, 140 lbs. for women) is that females have long, waist length hair. Everybody wears a nametag for without one there is no possible way to identify a person since it is carbon copy people straight across the globe. You are the odd one out and the only person who remembers a world with art. You probably feel quite lucky visualizing this but let’s see in a few minutes.

As you continue with this experiment keep in mind the world has no more art, everyone is in clone mode except for you and you are the only person who remembers things as they were. Okay, so to make this a bit more eventful, you are in the middle of a public place like a shopping mall, when I waved my magic wand at the beginning. You are in complete shock, as you should be and begin to scurry around like a rat in a cage, trying to make sense of this madness. You see all these people around you looking exactly the same and at the same time your surroundings are absent of décor, style; personality. The entire store fronts are boring; no bright displays or cool features inviting you in. No mall music, just mindless chatter amongst a bunch of what might as well be robots. You are completely flabbergasted so you decide to ask someone what is going on. Then you notice that everyone is staring at you; fingers pointing, people laughing, some uncontrollably. This is when you look down at your hands and see the ink so you run to a window and see your new reflection. What in the hell is going on you think to yourself. You are in jeans and a t-shirt while everybody else is dressed for a meeting. You look like a tattoo parlor went crazy on you and people are mocking you.

You decide to take a stand and make a public cry for help in the center of the mall. Attention is already directed your way so perhaps some answers will be given as to what has happened. Instead of anyone responding to your pleas for a reasonable explanation, you are treated like a circus side show freak. One man yells that you are insane and insists that you mutilated your body. Another joins in, making accusations that you are an escaped criminal who needs to be locked up. All of the commotion draws more and more people around and some of the women become hysterical. Several of them draw fruit from their bags; apples and bananas and hurl them in your direction, claiming they are afraid for their children. You dodge the flying fruit as you hear someone scream that this is a state of emergency and they are calling the authorities. At this instant you grasp the fact that you are in big trouble and put your feet to the beat; fleeing the mall as fast as you can. You do not stop running, not for a moment. You race for your life all the way to the shelter of your very own home. Once inside, your bolt the door behind you, and as you slowly catch your breath, you wish the nightmare would come to an end. Your wish is my command. The good old magic wand waves again and reality returns

SO WHAT IS THE SIGNIFICANCE?

My very unrealistic visual experiment was made to get you to see the importance of art. Art is more than sketches on a note pad or a painting sold at an auction. Art is a way of expressing an idea, an emotion or even a story. Everything from music to dance, poetry to photography has a story behind it. The artist tells us their tales using color, sound, words, and pictures, even the human body. Think about all the forms art can take; from fine art and graphic to visual and theatre. Just really think about all of the wonderful things we would lose if art were to truly vanish from our lives. Everyone is affected on a daily basis by art. Let’s face it; creativity can be attuned to almost every facet of life in one way or another. When I turn the focus to body art, as for this challenge, it is very important to remember all that I said about the artist. Simply put, body art is just another style; using the body as the canvas. I think that sometimes people get things confused and just think that body art is freakish, like it doesn’t count as creative or talent and just shun it as weird. This is the farthest thing from the truth and people need to realize that body art is all about self-expression whether it is body piercings, tattoos, modifications or enhancements.

My second point is to stress the individuality of the human being. We are not clones like in my silly little exercise yet unique unto our own. All across the globe lays such a diverse group of people. Different cultures, different races, all naturally beautiful in their own right. We are a people of many different shapes, sizes and skin tones. It would be an absolute boring existence to see the same face everywhere we went. When you really think about it humans ARE ART!! We each are born into a unique frame of our very own. Our thoughts belong to us and we each have our very own emotions which as individuals we portray in countless ways. The fantastic point is that we all display ourselves differently whether it is work, sports, basic communication, or art, we all have something to contribute to the world.

My simple wish with this challenge is for people to remember that as different as we all are; we are each a beautiful creation worthy of a place in this world. Art is a global experience. Body art is seen around the world, celebrating rites of passage, spiritual reasons, sharing stories, ancestry; exhibiting everything from simple pieces to the elaborate collections of a human canvas. It would be a beautiful thing to see more human acceptance among people instead of shunning or comparing. Let’s celebrate the art of the human body. After all, everything art including body art came from a human.

THE BACK STORY

My inspiration for the body art challenge came from my personal experience with issues that began at the age of 12. Up until this time I was a typical happy go lucky child. I loved to ride my bike and spent hours playing in our large backyard with my 2 younger sisters. We were all very imaginative children who never were lost for new ideas or things to do. Our mother was an inspiration with a talent she had for sewing. She made the majority of our clothes, not because we were poor but to help cut on clothing costs of a growing family. It was also very clear that my mom enjoyed her talent as she was quite skilled. One of my favorite memories is of our shopping trips to pick out fabric and patterns for future projects. It was kind of neat going to school in clothes that were one of a kind made by mom.

The 7th grade began a whole slew of problems, of which would trouble me for many years to come. Suddenly my homemade outfits were a joke to the other kids. I would get teased about where my clothes came from and asked what the designer label brand was. It was only a few short months since elementary school had ended. All of a sudden I was faced with the middle school mindset where everyone was trying to fit into a group. I just wanted to be myself but it was clear that the majority of other children were not accepting this. All the girls were embracing the notion of dressing cool which was mostly the same type of jeans, similar hairstyles and sneakers. I didn’t wear jeans often and they certainly weren’t designer. My hair was curly not the feathered bangs fad and my sneakers were so not cool; lacking an official brand. To top it all off I was one of the smallest girls in the entire class so I got penned with the names runt and bony.

Not much changed when I got into high school either. My mother was sewing much less since she worked full time but I continued to keep her spirit when it came to clothes. With earnings from babysitting and mowing lawns I would shop for articles of clothing based on my taste. People at school really weren’t much kinder to me. I had a few friends but my previous out casting from junior high stuck with me in the later years. Despite it all I just wasn’t willing to transform to fit into any type of click. I also kept my parents advice in the back of my mind at all times:” just because everyone else is doing something doesn’t mean you have to follow behind.” I will admit I hated school. I walked in each day dressed as an individual and I got into dying my hair to experiment with looks. I embraced my creativity through fashion but no one would embrace me. When high school graduation rolled around I was relieved. I was free from all the judging and snickers, free from being the “weirdo” yet what lay before me was years of feeling I had no purpose.

I spent several years after high school walking around in a bubble. I attended college and worked but I felt lost. I was alive but not truly living my life to my potential. I coped with my insecurities and depression by losing myself in art. In addition to retaining my flair for unique fashion, piercings and ever changing hair color, I became involved in dance which in retrospect was a life saver for me. The ever changing motions of my body to music became quite therapeutic and I was able to clear my mind. This art form helped me to snap out of my negative self-image and learn to flow with my natural spirit. As I got older and had daughters it became extremely important for me to teach them about art, self-acceptance and that of others. Today I hope that my story can touch at least one person, invoking change.