the body project
After my friends and I did this project there were comments. Lots and lots of comments. And many of those comments said this: I want to do it, too!
Which gave me an idea. Other people should do it, too.
I cannot tell you how soothing, amazing, and comforting it is to paint words of kindness on the body of a friend. And from what Jenny has said, it’s pretty great to be painted-on, as well. (That’s her self-portrait up top!) And there’s no reason Karen, Jenny, and I should get to have all the fun.
So grab some friends and a camera and make it happen! Then come here and leave a link to the photos in the comments (please keep the photos PG). I’d love to make a gallery of the photos on my website. Wouldn’t the world just be a slightly better place for women if we all just went out and did this? And if there were a little place on the web where we could all just relax and celebrate all different kinds of beautiful?
Plus, it’s just really fun.
SOME GUIDELINES:
- Pick a friend you feel very comfortable with.
- Use only kind words. Nothing mean.
- Wear whatever you’re comfortable in, but please keep photos PG.
- Use a small paintbrush. Too thick gets gloppy.
- Use water-based acrylic paint, and add a little water to it. It paints smoother that way.
- The light outdoors is better for photographs. Close-up shots work better than far-away ones.
- Make some words big and some words small. Use printing and cursive. Use stamps, if you like! Write all over the body, or just in one place…
Here are some suggestions for things you could write: (But feel free to write what you like. As long as it’s kind.)
- Make a list of things that are beautiful about your friend, and then paint them on her. And have her do the same for you.
- Make a list of ways you can look for beauty (in yourself) instead of flaws.
- Make a list of things you would say to your daughter or mother about what makes a person beautiful.
- Use this quote from Everyone is Beautiful. (Or parts of it…) This is the paragraph we used, and you are welcome to use it, too!
And here, after all that, is what I have come to believe about beauty:
Laughter is beautiful. Kindness is beautiful. Cellulite is beautiful. Softness and plumpness and roundness are beautiful. It’s more important to be interesting, to be vivid, and to be adventurous than to sit pretty for pictures. The soft tummy of a woman is a miracle of nature. Beauty comes from tenderness. Beauty comes from variety, from specificity, from the fact that no person in the world looks exactly like anyone else. Beauty comes from the tragedy that each person’s life is destined to be lost to time. I believe women are too hard on themselves. I believe that when you love someone, she becomes beautiful to you. I believe the eyes see everything through the heart, that nothing in the world feels as good as resting them on someone you love. I have trained my eyes to look for beauty, and I’ve gotten very good at finding it. You can argue and tell me it’s not true, but I really don’t care what anyone says.
I have come at last to believe in the title of the book: Everyone Is Beautiful.
I really do agree with the main character of Everyone Is Beautiful. Women are too hard on themeselves. And I don’t know exactly how we learn to be kinder. But I can tell you from experience that doing this project is a very good start.
love it. Will you paint me at blogher?
What a great idea. A grown up version of the bath- tub body paint for kids.
Fantastic idea! I wish I had someone who would do this with me.
I nearly cried when I saw this. As a highschool girl who routinely compares herself to others’ looks, this was an eye opener. I have this open photography project for school, and I have decided that this is what I will do for my project! I love writing, photography, your books, and my friends… So why not wrap them all into one big feel good, change the world package!!!
Thank you, really, for this beautiful idea.
ok – I am bringing this project with me to the oregon coast next week where I am leading a photography retreat. I’m going to read the paragraph above and dive into this project on the last day. I cannot wait!
Katherine,
It’s taken me a little while to find you, but I cannot find an email address for you. So, I’m going to ask my question here and hope that you see it and answer me. Here goes, with fingers crossed. Hard to type like this. 😉
I had seen photos of the retreat you mentioned on a blog or two in the past. Could not remember how I happened on to them or where they were. Didn’t have enough sense the day I found them to bookmark them. I was going through some rough things in my life. Loved the photos, but then forgot about them.
Then the crap really hit the fan here at home. Many things happened that I won’t bore you with, but it got hard fast and stayed that way for a long while. As I started to come through the worst of it, “I Am Enough” became my mantra. I had been wanting to get a tattoo for my 50th birthday, but couldn’t decide what to get and my 50th came during the worst of the bad stuff, so I didn’t get a thing. When it started to get better, I decided I wanted “I am enough” for my tattoo and started trying to figure out the way I wanted it to look.
I tried all kinds of type – cursive, lower case, upper case letters, even in a foreign language. I couldn’t figure it out. Nothing looked like I wanted it to look and I was afraid I’d spell it wrong in Italian. Then I bought a copy of Artful Blogging last week. On page 106 is a photo taken by Andrea Scher of Tracey Clark’s chest (I think) and your writing — “i am” printed and in lower case letters “enough” in lower case cursive. I knew when I saw IT that it was perfect and exactly what I’ve been looking for! Will you please give me permission to have your writing tattooed onto my arm?
Please contact me and let me know, yes or no.
Sharon
in TX