PLEASE NOTE: My photostream is PUBLIC and to view it ALL you'll need to adjust your account to view RESTRICTED images, because although most of my stream is flagged as MODERATE or SAFE, some images have to be flagged as RESTRICTED due to Flickr's strict nudity rules. However, be assured that NONE of the restricted images are distasteful. There are NO images reserved just for 'friends' or 'family' only.

Artistic BBW Profile:

Hello. My name's Hazel. I'm 42 years old, female, English, and a professional artist living in the UK; though I should say that this isn't my full-time occupation, because I fill my time with a variety of creative pursuits that include writing stories and factual articles, and I also work on community arts projects, plus I do other charity work too. In recent years I've been using low res photography in my 2D and 3D work and manipulating it to create interesting and unusual images. My artwork has always been primarily about colour, shape, texture, and composition, and how these can evoke certain emotions or imaginings in the viewer. Manipulated low res photography was a natural step for me to take, and this led me to investigate Flickr.

I enjoy using very low end photo studio applications, because I find them a very primitive medium that suits my artistic intention; kind of like the electronic equivalent of using crayons or cave-painting. I find it a very enjoyable challenge, and I like the raw painterly result that can be achieved by layering multiple effects onto the image. My art has always been 'rough' and textural; I'm not into creating slick, glossy, chic images/paintings. My aim is always to relate the original image to the colour, composition, and texture of the final result to try and convey a mood, idea, or concept about the image and/or the issues underlying that image. I also create abstract pieces that are mainly based on objects found in nature and landscapes. I'm interested in conveying the essence of the microcosm and the macrocosm within Creation and metaphysics when I explore and manipulate natural images.

My Current Photo Project on Flickr:

I'm pursuing a creative project that focuses on the larger-sized woman. I'm doing this because I needed to explore the issues of what it means to be a fat woman in today's society. I used to have a beautiful slim 'hourglass' figure, but due to a prolonged period of depression (which I'm now fully recovered from) I gained a lot of weight due to inactivity (rather than from overeating), and after a year of regular gym workouts my weight found a place where it seemed happy to remain without loss or gain; unfortunately though, it's way too heavy. I'm blessed with a metabolism that needs very little food to maintain it, and needs LOTS of activity to stay slim, but since my mid-thirties I've developed a painful systemic arthritic condition that makes it impossible for me these days to be the very active person I once was, so the prospect of me regaining the figure that was 'me' (and that I loved) is no longer an option, and this has been extremely hard for me to accept.

My body image has caused me great emotional difficulty. It has shattered my confidence, and prevented relationships, and also negatively affected the way I think/feel about other fat women - and I know that these modes of thinking are also shared by most other woman who have body image issues. I've been very unloving to myself, which isn't right, and this hurt has been compounded by the negative attitude that most men, the media, other women, and society in general have against fat women. Part of my motivation in my project has been to try and challenge these hurtful, negative, retrogressive attitudes.

Not all 'bloaters' are the same, and I want to challenge the blanket view that ALL fat women are ugly, lazy, weak and stupid, and constantly eat chocolate and burgers - I've known more slim people like this than can be said of fatties. I'm a vegan who hates greasy 'fast food' and prefers fruit to chocolate (true!) - I eat very well and healthily as I've always done, and I don't drink alcohol, but I'm approximately three stones (40 pounds) above my 'normal' weight, and my BMI is '30', which is right on the line between 'very overweight' and 'obese'. I think many fat women are like me; they don't have a self-abusive diet, but for various reasons they remain obese, such as having a very efficient metabolism and/or not being able to be as very active as their body needs to stay slim. Should we be derided, undermined, misjudged, and made to feel ugly, unwanted, and unlovable because of our 'crime' of being fat? Of course not; it's ridiculous - however this is how other people, the media, and general society constantly makes fat women feel. Wrong isn't it?

Thinking about my own body weight, my attitudes towards body size, and the aesthetic issues that surround larger sized women (and ageing) led me to begin exploring concepts within art about BODY IMAGE; especially as it relates to women, maturity, eroticism/sensuality, and the depiction of these topics within art (especially classic art), plus how attitudes to these issues as they relate to larger sized women have changed within art since early times and how these issues affect women today (and how I can reflect all of this within my own art).

To begin with I decided that I needed to explore my own body image and my feelings towards it via my camera as an artist and as a sensuous woman seeking to regain her sexual confidence. I am my own project for a while...

I photograph myself nude and semi-nude in various poses, and the results are interesting for me because I don't actually ever look at my body properly (certainly not in the close way I look at nude artist's models for my work), and I take these photos to try and view my body objectively as a way of trying to develop self-acceptance and reach a deeper understanding about my own attitudes towards body image, plus perhaps even find a renewed 'love' for my own body again that's been lacking for many years. I also seek to experiment with the art of eroticism in my work, reflecting the poses and attitudes of models within classic paintings and classic erotica to explore the concepts and opinions within art towards the sensuality of the larger sized woman, which for significant periods of time in various cultures across the world was regarded as true beauty (pulchritude) - I seek to investigate (1) how much these concepts and opinions have changed within art over time, (2) can the larger sized woman still be regarded as erotic/sensual within art in our current times, (3) how much the attitudes of viewers have changed towards the erotic depiction of larger sized women within art, and why, (4) how is the artistic image of the larger sized woman currently depicted within modern contemporary art, (5) how can/should the artistic image of the larger sized woman be depicted within modern contemporary art?

I wish to share these images of myself and my resulting art with the Flickr community to receive their thoughts and views; which will be very enlightening for me.

If I can find the space in my life and the funding/resources I need to continue this project I wish to begin developing my nude studies into artworks; developing abstractions and manipulated colour saturated compositions reminiscent of my usual artworks... thus I think further aiding me to develop a renewed appreciation of my body as an artist's tool, and helping me to develop a deeper understanding of the issues, attitudes, and concepts behind my project.

After this period of initial explorations and experimentation I wish to further develop my photo art images into paintings, mixed-media collage, and sculptural work; which is my usual way of working through a project. I also wish to seek the assistance of larger sized women to pose for me as artist models, and for these women and others to share their views about body image so that I can further expand my project to its conclusion, which would be to condense my accumulated work to present the most successful pieces within a multi/mixed media exhibition that follows the entire development process of the project, the artworks, and the concepts involved to present a whole-istic picture that effectively communicates the changing attitudes towards the larger sized female body within art throughout the ages from the standpoint of artist, model, viewer, and society. I also wish to produce a book that explores these issues using photographs.

YOU CAN FIND MORE OF MY PHOTOS & ART AT DEVIANTART.COM AND AT EYEFETCH.COM - JUST SEARCH FOR 'ARTISTIC BBW'

PLEASE NOTE: I reserve no photos in my stream for 'friends' only. I just have a few 'friends' marked on Flickr who are genuine colleagues and friends, so I can't arbitrarily mark you as a Flickr 'friend' just because you ask me to. Thanks.

Flickr Groups I have created and Administrate:

Monotone Nudes

www.flickr.com/groups/monotonenudes/

BIG BEAUTIFUL WOMEN!

www.flickr.com/groups/beautifulbigwomen/

BBW Erotica & Photo Art

www.flickr.com/groups/bbwerotica/

Flickr Female Artists' Network

www.flickr.com/groups/ffan/

Things That Delight Me

www.flickr.com/groups/thingsthatdelightme/

Interesting relevant artistic links (non-commercial):

commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Nude_paintings