Comments for Not Barbie: A Celebration of Real Women

Thank you does not even begin to express the gratitude - your lovely models are so clearly our sisters and selves entwined.  What a joy to see women, real women & think Beauty.  ~ AP

Thank you Susan!  This exhibit is outstanding - moving - powerful - inspiring and outrageous and it will help to educate women and men - thank you!  You are a gifted artist!  ~ ROS


Empowering and validating.  A show that should be seen by all.  ~ D

Wow!!  Amazing and beautiful.  Important work challenging society's assumptions on what beauty is.  This exhibit deserves a national exposure.  Thank you!  ~ JB

Love the exhibits - beautiful women - makes me appreciate my body more.  also as a mother of a transgirl - I love your display of beans: female ~ inbetween/undecided/intransition ~ male

Helps open the minds of others that gender is beyond the binary scale - but a continuum.  Thank you!!

Beautiful work!  Thank you & all of the women shown for the boost of confidence and pride that we should all have in ourselves.  ~ AMG

I love your focus on the "experience" of posing nude.  It really framed the works for me.  ~ AJ

Susan, What an incredible show - on so many levels - the visual excellence is amazing - the creative journey depicted for model and artist is enlightening and empowering for all including the viewer.  It reminds me of a quote from a famous photographer about how you must love your subject.  This is a project of love, creative excellence and a greater vision for social change.  Well done!!!  ~ KB

Thank you for all of thse beautiful women pics.  We are all beautiful in our own ways and you captured them all perfect.  Much love to you.  ~ DL

Absolutely gorgeous renditions!  You make me feel so much more comfortable to be a woman!  ~ BD

Susan, What an inspiring look at real women facing real life.  I can't wait for what's to come!  Blessings.  ~ J

Susan, this is such an amazing event/forum to bring to RVA!  Thank you for your courage.  ~ JS

I stand here in awe with tears welling up in my eyes!  So beautiful and gracious!

Love it!  beautiful, inspiring, courageous, & amazing.  ~ b

Healing images!  and stories.  Thanks!!! ~ MBG

It is all amazing - so reaffirming.  you did a wonderful thing in showing the reality and beauty that lies therein.  Thank you and carry on.  ~ DLH

Susan - I was taken by the joy that came through - in the meeting place between artist/model/viewer/materials - still room for mystery - shadow and pain - but lots of joy.  I, too, loved "Illumination".  Also, faces revealed so much ("Valley") and kept some things hidden.  The vulnerability & beauty of the feet in the Mother/Daughter Jock painting totally moved me.  ~ LS

Thank you to each of you who took the time to think about the show and comment on it.  I am so very grateful for your kind words.  They will inspire me to continue with my work if ever things get tough.
Much love,
Susan

Is she real or synthetic?

I was just looking on Amazon for the book by Arianna Huffington about Picasso and his many women (her quote was at the bottom of my blog yesterday) and saw this ad:

I assumed it was for a Barbie Doll.  When I looked more closely, I saw it might possibly be a real woman.  Sort of.  I can't quite tell.  She looks plastic or porcelain, but she has bubbles coming out of her mouth and her hair is swirling sort of realistically.  Her gaze is a mix between real and synthetic.

Is this what we're coming to?  A society where we can't tell real people from fake ones?

Chris and I were talking the other day about fantasy machines which we'll be able to enter one day, get squished and transformed into the "perfect" shape, then come out the other side a carbon copy of everyone else, except our height.  Perfect for the rest of our lives.  Except that, oh yeah, "perfect" would change each season, so you'd have to go back in every few months to get the updated look.  How else would the company make its money?  The more I see, the more cynical I get, and the clearer I am about the importance of the work I'm doing.

I watched a documentary last night called Bigger, Stronger, Faster.  It was about men who have chosen to take steroids to get a physical advantage in their competitive sports.  The director seems to be honestly trying to answer for himself whether using them is moral or immoral, healthy or deadly, acceptable or unacceptable.  It gives good insight into what men are beginning to experience in terms of expectations of six-pack abs and pumped muscles.  It seems similar to what women have been going through for years.  I hope it doesn't take hold for men.  These societal expectations are simply not helpful for anyone except for the companies who sell the products.