Ashton

[ashtonrosek]

Performance Art: Indecisive

For my performance art project, I decided to create a process piece. The meaning behind this piece is about the constant pressures and beauty standards in our everyday lives. Each day, we see advertisements from the fashion and beauty industries with unrealistic images of beauty. It results in anxiety, low self-esteem, and low self-confidence in the majority of women. These images make women unhappy and self-conscious of their body, their hair, their skin, their clothes, and their appearance in general. 

This is when women begin to try and reach these unrealistic goals of how they believe and society believes they should look. They become indecisive about their appearance.

Here are some of my indecisive thoughts throughout my process of getting ready each day:

“Dressing comfy sounds fantastic, but I feel like I need to dress up.”

“I really want to leave my hair curly today, but everyone likes it better straight.”

“My mom likes when I wear heels, but I want to wear Vans.”

“What do you think I should wear?”

“Is this even cute?”

These are just a few examples of thoughts and questions constantly going through my brain when I get ready. As you saw in my video, I was simply getting ready for the day. I went through a long process of making myself into someone I thought is appealing to others - I made sure to cover up all my acne, straighten my hair, put on lipstick, put on eyeliner, etc. These are things I did not want to do, but society continuously tells me that it is what I should be doing. I then went through outfits and tried to decide what was cute or trendy or appropriate for the day. At the end of the video is when I decided I wanted to look how I wanted to. I changed into a t-shirt and some shorts, put up half my hair, and took off the majority of my makeup.

I’m hoping this video shines a light on these standards and expectations and shows women that we shouldn’t have to meet them. We should be able to feel confident in whatever we decide to wear, however we choose to do our hair, and however little or much makeup we want to put on. We can no longer be indecisive about our appearance, we must make decisions based on what we feel comfortable with and what make us feel beautiful. 

Also, I hope you guys enjoy the music. I definitely took a risk using it, but I found it somewhat chaotic and very fast paced. I thought it added to my video and its purpose. The music kind of represents the chaos that goes on in a women’s head when getting ready - tying into that indecisiveness of how to present oneself. 

Background music:

https://freemusicarchive.org/search?sort=track_date_published&d=1&quicksearch=beethoven&page=2

[thebrokeblog]

Hypocrisy

For my performance I wanted to focus my concept around Hypocrisy that exist on the social media sites today. Hypocrisy is not something that has existed only since the creation of social media websites.  However in my opinion I feel that websites like Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat, create and cater to hypocrites. These websites are places were people from different cultures, subcultures, belief groups, ideologies, and walks of life congregate and communicate and I have noticed that a lot of the time people will try to change the way they are viewed or perceived online versus in real life. Often I see people actions in real life conflict and contradict with what they say or post or pretend to be on online.

[ashtonrosek]

I think your concept was creative and relevant. People constantly preach one thing, post one thing, retweet one thing and then act completely different in their real life. I’m sure we’ve all been guilty of it at some point in our lives. It’s hard though when you see someone posting about working out and eating healthy and then know them in real life where they don’t ever workout or they eat like shit. It’s hard to know what is true and what is just for show. I think your topics throughout the video were intense but proved the point. The only suggestion I’d make is to potentially put your camera further back so we could see you the whole time. I also think sometimes it did get confusing as to what you were promoting as on social media and which was the real life. So maybe a distinction between the two would be helpful. I think this was a great performance, good job!

[filtzgood]

Performance Art - Single use plastics

This is my public intervention project part II, and applied as my performance art piece in its disassembly.  This piece has been in my yard for a good minute, and while the interaction with my community was more in seeing the passersby stop and look, mostly with smiles, some with gawking irritation, I was happy with the overall public response.  I had some kids volunteer to talk to me, and that became the highlight of the process for me. As I stated in my artist statement for the installation, this is an important and critical issue for the future of humankind on the planet, and we have to pay attention.  The issue has been casually regarded, and individualizing the issue, giving people the impression that it is enough to recycle, and that will solve the problem is misleading.  The issue is far reaching and all industries are needing to respond to the issue with urgency.  Recycling on an individual effort  will not take care of it, and just that will not slow production or the processes that are in place in manufacturing.  This is an industry issue that can only be powerfully addressed through consumer choices.  Do not support companies with irresponsible policies, and products not easily disassembled for component recycling and reuse.   This is a movement of consumerism and the choices that we make in our purchasing, as much as it is an issue of effort to help an overwhelming issue in its scope.

[ashtonrosek]

I really like your plastic tree and the concept behind it. I think it was very successful as an intervention project but maybe need a little more work to be a performance project. I think reading the statistics is important and interesting but I feel like maybe there is another way. The main suggestion I would make is to make it one video all together instead of multiple clips. As one video, it is easy to follow along and understand the full meaning. I think the recycling of plastics was great. Maybe even instead of talking to the kids and reading all of the information, you could stick to the clip where you had sped up the cleanup process. I think it would be effective to see you cleaning up the ‘mess’ of the plastic tree. Metaphorically, it would be you, the consumer, cleaning the mess of these industries and what they are doing to harm our environment. Just something to consider, but other than that, I liked it. Good job!

[janaechapman]

PERFORMANCE ART PROJECT

I really struggled with what to portray/act out in my performance video. I knew I was drawn to the concept of process the most out of the three choices. Ultimately, I decided to “perform” the act of potting a much overgrown pothos plant cutting that I have been procrastinating on transferring for many months now. The simplicity and mundane-nature of the act of potting a plant was attractive to me. As straightforward as something like that is, I think it’s fitting and somewhat profound for this current time. So many of us have resorted to simple pleasures and hobbies to fill up our time and give us joy, relaxation, and comfort. I know many people have started or returned to gardening or taking care of house plants in particular. It destresses us and gives us something to do during our empty time, but it also provides us with a little bit of hope. During a season that makes people feel so stuck, helpless, and pressured, it is reassuring to watch the faithful process of nature, of a simple plant that grows and continues in its cycle, unhindered by a global pandemic.

[janaechapman]

pushing to the top of my feed for critiques

[ashtonrosek]

I really love this. Your performance is so simple, but your concept makes it much more deep and intriguing. It is relevant and relaxing. I have definitely taken pleasure in the simpler things lately as well. Just taking the time to water your plants or repot one honestly helps relax me. Times are tough and stressful and uncertain, so to have something constant and something you can control makes a huge difference. The only suggestion I have is maybe to use a couple of lamps to give your performance some better lighting. It’s just a little dark, but not a big deal. Great job!

[kathemediina]

Spinning Out

Dancer and Ballerinas have techniques thanks to that they do not get dizzy when they are spinning out also with time and practice their brain adapt and also, they become resistant. I am not a dancer and I do not know the techniques and for this performance I put my self in this challenge. Endurance is what I select because most of the time we put ourselves in a comfort zone and is good to take challenges and see how far we can go and that is the main idea with this performance because knowing that we can learn techniques or just practice everyday sometimes is better to see if we can make it in our own. Also in the performance I want to show a progressive way of how is so easy to start and resist and then just get some more and more and how the body, mind (off balance) and emotion also can change.

[ashtonrosek]

I think your performance is interesting. I enjoyed the idea of you spinning and slowly getting dizzier. I also liked that you put your video in black and white. It made it more dramatic, yet somewhat simple. I am struggling a little bit to understand your concept and artist statement. I agree with the ideas that we need to push ourselves out of our comfort zones and try new things or challenges. I think the concept is there, you just need to dive deeper into your artist statement. I think you could be more detailed, give examples, and explain your concept further. I think that would help further your project!

[ty-bjork]

“The result of unconscious bias,— instinctive, underlying beliefs about ethnicity, gender, age, sexuality, social class, religion, and so on. This may be largely unintentional.”

Although there is equal opportunity there’s not always equal outcome. I wanted to create a piece that speaks to the wonen, specifically mothers in the workplace. I feel like Covid replaced the glass to the said ceiling in regards to motherhood. Question began to arise... Who is going to stay home with the children in the case that schools go back to remote learning? I know this is not all the time, I know that circumstance make a dramatic difference, but I think that this is a huge setback for women in the workplace especially for mothers. I am trying to portray the struggle and also spread awareness of how the regression will start to oppress mothers in the workplace especially in fast pace fields of work. I want to portray this in three ways; first the symbolism of climbing the corporate ladder, then tapping the glass ceiling and trying to break that barrier, and last swallowing the “hard pill” of make the chose between family and work.

The repetitive motion of the ladder symbolizing the journey so many mothers are on to make to true prosperity in the workplace. Looking up to the potential and accepting the challenge to clime the ladder time and time again. I placed a doll at the bottom of the ladder, representing the symbol of children that this is not just women in generally but specifically mothers. I used the tapping of the glass as a symbol of trying to breakthrough. I did not tap hard intentionally, this symbolic to the energy it takes to get through this barrier. Last, I used swallowing of pills to symbolize the the hard pills we have to take to sacrifice for either our family or our job.

[ashtonrosek]

I really enjoyed your performance. This is such an important and relevant concept, that I hadn’t really thought about. You’re making a great point about the decision of who’s going back to work and who’s going to stay home. It’s a tough, but incredibly important topic to talk about. I think your performance was great. I loved the idea behind you climbing the ladder and then coming back down because that is what happens. You get going, climbing the ladder, and then hit a set back and have to climb down again. The only suggestion I have is it find something to place your camera on, just because the shaking did get a bit distracting, but not a big deal. I also think after your clip swallowing the pills, I think you could’ve ended your performance there. I liked your tapping video, I think it is a very important piece of the performance but I think it was best just before the pill clip. Great performance and a great concept!

[mirandapanda415-deactivated2020]

The Pain No One Sees

https://youtu.be/YikTRKAXdV0

Chronic pain. I have been living with it for twelve years now, and I wouldn’t wish this on anyone. It is debilitating, scary, angering, anxiety-provoking, and depressing, just to name a few.  In my piece, the X’s on my body represent areas of chronic pain, and as time goes on, the intensity gets worse, which is the type of chronic pain I have suffered through and am still suffering through. Most chronic pain is invisible to many people, so my intention with my performance art piece is to bring awareness to the pain no one can see. Since chronic pain is long-lasting and is an effect from many diseases, I wanted to also represent the estimated 50 million people in the United States alone who suffer from chronic pain along with me. Even though so many people suffer from it, I don’t think chronic pain alone gets enough awareness, so I hope my performance can do just that.

P.S. This was VERY out of my comfort zone y’all but I did my best :)

[ashtonrosek]

I really enjoyed your performance. I think your video was great and the concept behind it was awesome. I applaud you for using this video to bring awareness to chronic pain and how many people suffer from it. Your video was personal and intense, I loved it. I think it became really impactful when you sped up drawing on your body and became more aggressive throughout. I don’t really have any suggestions. I think you need exactly what you intended and what needed to be done to promote the awareness you wanted. Great job!

[thekellyangryberger-deactivated]

Artists have attachments- many are drawn to garbage and the discards of others. I include myself in this group of people. I also tend to hang on to my own work. As I was scanning paintings from the last two years (one of those projects I finally have time for) I spiraled through memories of making each work, and the places that inspired them. Much of my painting work was made during a year-long period of travel in Asia and South America. For the first time, really ever, I spent time with this massive body of work and sorted it. Filed it. Organized it. Tossed the ones that I didn’t need, or didn’t seem worth saving for reuse. I scanned as much as I could stand to scan- and now these images exist in the DIGITAL WORLD! These paintings have spent the last year in a drawer and finally, they can see the light. 

While working through these memories it occurred to me that I had lost them until that moment I hadn’t any more. I’m not sure if that even makes sense. But what if I could edit out bad memories? Summon them to the surface like the boot reeled in on a fishing trip. Paint them. Shred them. I will read into the camera a few details of these memories before simply letting them go. I think we all owe it to ourselves to let go of shame- something I would say to someone else but have never allowed myself to do. 

As a self-critique, I do narrate this project through the video. I have a hard time with stopping myself from talking.

[ashtonrosek]

I really enjoyed this performance. I think your concept was great and impactful. Sometimes we really need to let go of memories that are keeping us down and shred em. It’s also hard to let go of those good memories, but sometimes you need to make room for even more good memories. I think it was cool hearing how your stories inspired your art. I would say I would have enjoyed seeing a couple more paintings/stories. You could maybe even just have videotaped yourself shredding other paintings in between the stories you wanted to focus on. I also would suggest combining everything together so there is not editing clips together. Great performance!

[valeriaqb]

Performance Art Project- El Sebucan

This project has been my favorite. I got to explore my roots and connect with my culture while researching and performing. This dance is called “El Sebucan” and it is named after a traditional tool used by indigenous tribes in Venezuela and other parts of the Caribbean to extract cyanide from bitter cassava, which is how casaba (thin flatbread.) This dance is part of my ancestors and blood, and so I thought that recreating it in my own way would be itself a piece of art. I want the audience to be intrigued by the dance and to wonder what it means. The choreography resembles the techniques used in the sebucan; the interwoven of the ribbons is similar to the braids of fibers in the actual tool.  The colors of the ribbons are intentional as well, they represent the colors of the Venezuelan flag.

I wanted to show a part of my culture while challenging myself a little bit since this dance is supposed to be performed by several people. Re-connecting with my culture has been a goal of mine for the past months since I have realized I am losing touch about my region, South America. It has African, indigenous, and European influences, which represents the rich and diverse blood that runs through my veins.

[valeriaqb]

For critiques

[ashtonrosek]

I think your idea behind this project is awesome. I love how you chose something personal and how you are using it to reconnect to your culture. I think your performance is very interesting and exciting. It is light-hearted and fun while having a deeper meaning for you. The only thing I would change is maybe using a wider and lengthened shot. I know sometimes setting the camera up to capture everything is difficult, but I think seeing a full-body shot of this would enhance the performance. Seeing your feet and the footwork that I’m sure you worked hard to learn would benefit your video. 

[jessicahughesart]

21:12 wehttaM

In this performance I recite the Bible verse Matthew 21:12 backwards. It’s a commentary on how modern churches do things “backwards”, selling products and services to become rich, closing their doors to those in need during natural disaster and homelessness. The Bible preaches against greed and yet our society has many people becoming rich and famous for preaching the bible, conveniently, they may miss certain sections or preach them anyway unaware of the hypocrisy.  

“Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves,

And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.”

[ashtonrosek]

This is an awesome and unique concept. I love the idea of stating this verse backward. It gets your concept across very well. I also want to applaud your setting in your video. It made it even more intense and theatric. The lighting is great and your costume/outfit is perfect for your purpose. I think your performance was consistent and emphasized your concept throughout the whole thing. It was short and sweet, but just enough to get your point across. I’m not sure I have any suggestions. Maybe just expand on your concept in your artist statement, but that’s really it. Good job!

[nathandmsudesign-blog]

Performance Art Project

I Hate To Say It But I Do Need Saving

With this performance I wanted to highlight what it’s like to carry all of the pressures and burdens of life: the tasks and goals and hardships and responsibilities we pick up over time and how it can seem like too much to bear sometimes. I wanted to convey that sense of burden and the feeling of being overwhelmed. Some of the items I pick up symbolize very really things like my pride flag and my school bag. Other things are less clear and more open for interpretation like the clothes and travel gear and camera equipment. Most importantly, I want the stress to be felt as my hands get over full. While its something I relate to I feel like many around me go through the same thing as well even if we don’t share our struggles or talk about it openly with one another. This was an important sentiment to explore for me personally and it kind of reflects my current reality. It was a unique experience being in front of the camera like that and there were stresses for me as I kept dropping things and having to rearrange them in my arms and hopefully that helps to reiterate my theme.

[nathandmsudesign-blog]

Pushing this back to the top of my feed.

[ashtonrosek]

I really enjoy the concept of your project. We each carry things every day through our lives - past experiences, opinions, values, words, jobs, struggles, education, etc. It gets really heavy sometimes. I think your performance really shows the struggle of being able to carry all of our ‘baggage’ if you want to call it that. Sometimes we need help from others to carry it all or we need to leave a few things behind every once in a while. The only thing I would suggest is maybe to spend more time on the carrying of the items instead of the packing. I think the packing is important, but I think it would’ve been interesting to see you carrying your stuff for longer, maybe into another room, through your house, maybe drop a few things, something like that. 

[eleni-learns-art]

For this piece, I wanted it to be as raw and as stripped down as possible- no fancy editing or performance, just me, raw and unfiltered. This is a letter/poem I wrote to my ex boyfriend last year. I really struggled with this breakup, and almost a year later I am still dealing with some of the emotional ramifications of this relationship. I hope that by publishing this piece, i will be able to find some peace and rest. Im hoping this experience will be cathartic and healing for me.  Again, like most of my works, the piece has to do with what it means to be a woman in different spheres, specifically a heterosexual relationship.

[ashtonrosek]

I want to say this is incredibly brave of you to put this out there and be so vulnerable. I applaud you for that. I think your writing is really impactful and gives us the true story of what was happening in your relationship. I think this overall concept is very relatable and important to understand. The only suggestion I would make is that the editing could be a bit smoother to make the story more seamless. I think it would be possible to tape this all together and eliminate the edits. The edits just distract from the story and make it a bit confusing at times, but overall this is a great concept and I hope it brings you the peace you need.

[hollysherman4d-deactivated20220]

Performance Art Piece

This performance piece is about self-love. The concept of looking into the mirror is heavily associated with narcissism and an over inflated ego, but looking at yourself with love and compassion doesn’t have to be like that. In this project, I wanted to recreated the perception of how I personally look into the mirror. It has been a long journey to reach a point in my life where I have been able to reflect on myself and love myself. I found this performance piece very emotional. I have consistently had toxic relationships with mirrors throughout my entire life. I always looked for the flaws in myself and my body when looking into mirrors. I this performance, I looked into my own eyes in the mirror for 30 minutes straight and repeated the mantra, “you are love, you are light”. I found this experience to be very emotional to me, and I actually ended up crying at points. Sometimes it is hard to practice self-care and take time to sit still and just be with yourself, but I think it is so necessary to our mental health and wellbeing. My drive as an artist is to create work that makes an impact, on myself or others. I think with this piece, I definitely had a wonderful experience recreating my relationship with my reflection and digging deeper into the negative roots of looking into myself and changing them.

[ashtonrosek]

I love love love this project. It is so relatable and yet personal. I think almost everyone can say they have looked into a mirror and not liked what they saw. I struggle with this on a daily basis. It is hard to look at yourself and not find imperfections, especially with all these beauty and fashion expectations we receive every day. I think you did great with this project and really pushed the need for self-care for everyone. It is so incredibly important to be able to accept yourself and feel comfortable and confident in your own skin. I think your video emphasizes this point. I liked that you did speed up your video and overlayed the audio with it. The audio gets a bit repetitive after a while, but I think that’s the point and it works great with the visual. Good job!

[evie26blog]

Performance Art Project: A Family that Cooks Together, Stays Together

I decided to focus my performance art project around something that I find extremely important. After having my daughter, I realized that my husband and I never ate at the table as a family like I had when I was growing up. I started wondering when and why I stopping the tradition of preparing and eating a meal as a family. Growing up, I always helped my parents cook and it provided a unique time of the day where we could connect as a family. I believe that this time together is so important and it gives kids the opportunity to learn and be creative, while at the same time it reinforces the family bond. By the time my daughter was a year old, we decided to make a habit out of cooking together and always eating as a family. I filmed my family preparing a pot roast that was to be cooked throughout the day, this is why my daughter is in her jammies and looks pretty disheveled. She loves to play with ingredients by tasting and smelling them, she also loves adding things to the pot (which she graciously shows in the last few seconds of the video). I contemplated several times making a different video because I wasn’t totally in love with the way that this one turned out. Ultimately, I decided to stick with this one because it was a perfect capture of what cooking is like with my family. There are a lot of things going on at once and it may seem chaotic but it means the world to me that I can share something I love with my family.

[ashtonrosek]

I think this project is adorable and has a great concept behind it. It is a great idea to show this process of cooking your family meal. It brings in concepts of family, togetherness, time, etc. Also, your daughter is super cute! I do think the angle of your video could be better just so we could see what is exactly going on. You could also use maybe a little wider shot so we could see what everyone is doing, in order to emphasize that concept of working together to create this meal. Other than that, great project!

[christyto4d-beyond]

Performance Art: “Making America Great”

“Making America Great” is meant to be a commentary on COVID and quarantine in the USA. From the beginning, the current administration (with fervent support from its base) has downplayed the reality and significance of what is now a pandemic. From selling stockpiles of PPE to other countries to undermining state efforts to obtain PPE to refusing to wear a mask himself, President Trump has consistently acted in a way to secure his own re-election over the safety of his constituents. Relatedly, while people have been trapped at home under quarantine, money has continued to be poured into the border wall. Trump’s base has followed his lead and, like the president, put their own interests over the health and safety of the country as a whole. As a whole, I intended this piece to be a reflection of the selfishness, waste, isolation, division, and even nonchalant brutality of current times. This was originally performed live on Facebook. This recording was edited for time and was flipped as it was originally recorded as a mirror image.

[ashtonrosek]

This is awesome. I think you had a super interesting and intriguing concept behind your performance. It is unique but incredibly relevant to the times we are living in. The idea of building a wall with these supplies is creative and impactful. Also, props for performing this on Facebook live. The only suggestion I have that could have been cool if it’s possible, would be to screen record the Facebook live so that you could see the comments being made and the people viewing your video. I’m not super familiar with Facebook Live so I’m not sure if it’s similar to Instagram live or not, but I think it’d be interesting to see who’s viewing and how long they view it or if they like it or comment. Great project!

[nervoussheepinfluencer]

this time - Performance Art Project

For my performance art project, I wanted to explore the theme of practice, and our interpretation of ability. If you tune into any form of media, such as the news, a show, or even social media, you’re bound to find people of extreme ability in some way. We often idolize these people, and seek to become just like them, at least in how well they can use their craft. Many of us see these absolutely amazing things that these people can do, and of course, we attempt to imitate. But we fail. And many can’t accept that, and decide that they are just not cut out for it. This leads me to what we have forgotten. I feel like a lot of us forget is that this ability, this talent, that so many people have in their pursuits, has been gained not through intuition, or just “being born with it,” but hours of daily struggle and improvement. These people have sought out this ability day in and day out, and have found it. Sure, you could say that some people are more predisposed towards certain abilities, such as those who maybe never needed training wheels, or just started drawing on their own as kids. But that hasn’t stopped the majority of those who actually have passion in their study to pursue what they love, and become great at it. In order to showcase this idea, I chose to record myself skateboarding. When I was younger, I once wanted to become a professional skater. I would watch as many videos as I could of awesome skaters, who seemed to be able to do the impossible without breaking a sweat. But I couldn’t. I always got so frustrated when I couldn’t land a new trick within a day. This actually lead me to have a burn out, and I ended up not skating as much as I could have because of how angry I was. However, what I always forgot was many of these pros spent complete days and weeks just mastering one trick on their board, day in and day out. So, for my project, I set up a space so that I could record myself going back and forth in one area, attempting to learn one trick, the 360 flip, or tre-flip, over and over again.  I did this every day for thirty minutes, six days in a row, so that I could show my progress and how much time can really be spent learning a new skill. I named my project ‘this time,’ because that is what I ended up telling myself every time I went to try the trick.

For reference, this is a link to a video of what a 360 flip is supposed to look like:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsgrgDrOFDs

P.S. Sorry this is a bit late, my computer ran into problems exporting, and I had to do a computer reboot. 

P.S.S. You may notice that my video is a bit edited. Upon reviewing my original video, where I just sped up my recordings in order to fit the time frame, I realized that you could barely see me doing anything, instead you would only see  frames, catching a glimpse of me mid-trick occasionally. Because of this, I edited the video so you can see each trick individually.

[ashtonrosek]

First off, I really like what you chose to name your piece. I thought this performance was relatable and interesting. We all work towards perfecting a skill or even just getting something right after trying multiple times. Your video shows how one needs to be dedicated to working hard and practicing. I really enjoyed this performance. I do think that less editing would have been cool, but ultimately unrealistic considered you videotaped each day. What you chose to edit made sense for your project. I would suggest maybe fewer clips for each day because it did become fairly repetitive, but other than that, great concept and awesome project!

[ashtonrosek]

Performance Art: Indecisive

For my performance art project, I decided to create a process piece. The meaning behind this piece is about the constant pressures and beauty standards in our everyday lives. Each day, we see advertisements from the fashion and beauty industries with unrealistic images of beauty. It results in anxiety, low self-esteem, and low self-confidence in the majority of women. These images make women unhappy and self-conscious of their body, their hair, their skin, their clothes, and their appearance in general. 

This is when women begin to try and reach these unrealistic goals of how they believe and society believes they should look. They become indecisive about their appearance.

Here are some of my indecisive thoughts throughout my process of getting ready each day:

“Dressing comfy sounds fantastic, but I feel like I need to dress up.”

“I really want to leave my hair curly today, but everyone likes it better straight.”

“My mom likes when I wear heels, but I want to wear Vans.”

“What do you think I should wear?”

“Is this even cute?”

These are just a few examples of thoughts and questions constantly going through my brain when I get ready. As you saw in my video, I was simply getting ready for the day. I went through a long process of making myself into someone I thought is appealing to others - I made sure to cover up all my acne, straighten my hair, put on lipstick, put on eyeliner, etc. These are things I did not want to do, but society continuously tells me that it is what I should be doing. I then went through outfits and tried to decide what was cute or trendy or appropriate for the day. At the end of the video is when I decided I wanted to look how I wanted to. I changed into a t-shirt and some shorts, put up half my hair, and took off the majority of my makeup.

I’m hoping this video shines a light on these standards and expectations and shows women that we shouldn’t have to meet them. We should be able to feel confident in whatever we decide to wear, however we choose to do our hair, and however little or much makeup we want to put on. We can no longer be indecisive about our appearance, we must make decisions based on what we feel comfortable with and what make us feel beautiful. 

Also, I hope you guys enjoy the music. I definitely took a risk using it, but I found it somewhat chaotic and very fast paced. I thought it added to my video and its purpose. The music kind of represents the chaos that goes on in a women’s head when getting ready - tying into that indecisiveness of how to present oneself. 

Background music:

https://freemusicarchive.org/search?sort=track_date_published&d=1&quicksearch=beethoven&page=2