Emma C.

The central idea of my capstone is to explore my own emotions about topics such as womanhood, gender and sexuality, relationships, and self-realization. It was not just the ideas, but the physicality of the paint that evolved my art into a much more personal body of work that has helped me embrace myself as I go into my life.

I believe that my first breakthrough in my work this year occurred with Rebirth, which helped me to take a step away from the way I was used to working and made me focus on what I really wanted to say with my art. Girlhood is the next piece, and my favorite, which made me consider what this painting meant to me, what I wanted to say. I realized that to me, it was a representation of how I grew into womanhood. It was as if one day, I was expected to just suddenly grow up. I had to be okay with sexual remarks from strangers, I had to expect stares from people if I wore certain clothes, I had to be cognizant of how my body was now inherently sexual rather than just being me. Girlhood is a representation of how it felt to be plunged into this sea of societal rules and expectations that didn’t care about me as a person, just my body. From then on, I was not afraid to explore more personal ideas through my work, which helped me learn more about myself and ultimately through that understanding, appreciate myself for who I am.