Ideal Human Form

The mythology surrounding beauty, ideal beauty to be exact is inescapable here. Everywhere you turn there are sculptures and paintings depicting what in both the past and present is considered to be “beauty”. This idea of beauty is one of the most noticeable aspects of this country. From the landscapes of seas and sprawling olive fields to the dramatic architecture adorned with paintings and sculptures, all that surrounds me strikes me with a feeling very similar to that of lust. I want to hold it in my mind, photograph, and draw it, to in some way make it tangible, make it more “real” than the reality that lies before me. The image of beauty in my mind is transformed from what I see to encompass a feeling, an unspeakable ideal of what has taken centuries to create and express. I find myself questioning this sensation of what is considered beautiful.

Myth after myth describe the Goddess and Gods, their perfectly toned bodies, their musical talents and warrior mentalities in such a way as to make them the pinnacle of what a perfect human should look and act like. Apollo with his unbeatable musical ability, Aphrodite with her unattainable beauty and charm, Athena and Zeus with their powers of war and protection all seem to be the standard for what we still see today at the “perfect” human. We look for these characteristics in lovers and friends, “Is he handsome? Is she skinny? Can they protect me? Fight for me? Create music or dance?” All ideals which have been personified in Greek myth and art. But how real are these standards, how can any mortal ever live up to these kinds of perfection?

I have talked with some of the most “beautiful” people I know and listened to them all speak of their lack of this “perfection”. From my eyes, they evoke an overwhelming sensation of beauty, but when looked at through their own eyes they see a void, a pedestal unreachable, reserved only for the Goddesses and Gods of today that fill pages of magazines and dominate television and movies. The way I see beauty is by all means influenced by this design of ideal beauty. Every westernized country is filled with advertisements directed at the very impressionable youth, teaching them from a young age what “beauty” is and how to embody it. The more I interact with this ideal the more I begin to see it as a fallacy, almost the opposite of what real beauty is. I have started drawing these people that will never live up to their own idea of beauty. I sit and stare at, what in their minds are imperfections, and think how much character and life these “imperfections” hold. The wrinkles around the eyes, the womanly curves around a belly button, the shadow cast by a breast, all features I focus on and see as the most beautiful, are grounds for plastic surgery, dieting, and lack of self-esteem. This contradiction between what my eyes see and what the world of ideal beauty sees is strengthening my drawing skills everyday. The more I focus on my version of ideal beauty the more I see the faults in a society driven by such an unrealistic standard of beauty. I see the plastic faces of television and airbrushed features in advertisements and feel only a sense of disgust with no urge to draw them or recreate them in any way. On the contrary the wrinkles of an old women or the double chin of the man across from me send my mind into a full on artistic frenzy.

My ideal beauty is life, lived hard with struggles shown in lines on the face and weight around the belly, scares and horns. I find myself photographing and drawing people most wouldn’t give a second look, and finding the most beauty in their “imperfections”.

It is amazing how in a time span of over 3,000 years the stories of the myth of beauty are still the same. Aphrodite, the beautiful, is still the one the boys fight over; Artemis, the virgin, is still trying to be conquered; Hera, the older women, is still being cheated on with younger women; Hephaestus, the lame, is still being ridiculed by his friends and family, and Zeus, almighty man, is still in power. The ideals of the perfect human are still being perpetuated today. Every mainstream television show and movie has the same base of characters as the mythology surrounding the Greek pantheon of Gods. Only now, rather than watching a play in a beautifully designed outdoor theater, we sit and watch via cable and satellite, being force feed commercials after commercial telling us what “real beauty” is all about; white teeth, flat bellies, long flowing hair, designer jeans and a new car.

The myth of the ideal human, their beauty and power, have become more than just a myth of the Gods acted out on stage, it has become the impossible reality of a whole society. This myth turned reality is what is driving my artistic choices and catching my attention turning my daily drawings and thoughts into my own version of ideal beauty. I am rewriting the myth of ideal beauty in my mind to create my own version of this age-old myth.

The Myth of Beauty

Ideal Beauty: the term most used to describe the classical period of Greek sculpture, yet also splashed across magazines and billboards of today. Idealized human forms, bodies of immaculate muscular tone, breasts full and round, gazes subtle but striking, cloth draped just falling off the hip, the “perfect” human. The Greeks of the 4th and 5th century were seemingly obsessed with creating the perfect, idealized human. The sculptures that fill museums and adorn tops of buildings are the symbols of, what most would call, ideal beauty. A picture of beauty so unattainable, yet so desirable, that it holds much of classical mythology in its grasp and at the same time has created a version of beauty society still clings to to this day. Aphrodite, goddess of beauty and love, symbolizes and perpetuates this ideal beauty. She transcends time and has represented the standard of beauty throughout the centuries, helping to create our modern day version of what is classified as beautiful. From the sculptures representing Aphrodite by Polykleitos, dating back to 440 BCE to the photographs of super models that plaster modern day streets, the design of ideal beauty has not changed much. In the classical era sculptors took liberties with their art, taking a human model and literally chiseling their bodies to “perfection”. In the same way photographers use the chisels of today, photo shop, to create the same unattainable version of beauty.
For the past two weeks I have had the pleasure of mingling with the modern day version of classical Greek sculpture: professional models. Just as 2000 years ago, these models are beautiful, more so than the average person on the street, yet no more perfect than anyone else. As we sit and chat over dinner I see them as humans, full of imperfections just like myself, but once made up by professional make-up artists, wearing designer clothes, light to perfection, photographed by world renowned artists, photo shopped, and printed in high resolution, the are the, no pun intended, the picture of ideal beauty.
This myth, the myth of beauty has worked its way around time and through space only to show up right back where it stated, here in Greece. It is almost too perfect that I should meet these people here, in the birthplace of ideal beauty. The stories of the beauty of Aphrodite, her tampering with the love lives of mortals and those of the gods transcends into the photographs taken of my new friends. Each photo is like a myth in itself: the tension of lovers, the unattainable, the temptation of ideal beauty, all show themselves in the advertisements plastered in the windows of every clothing store you pass.
The myths of Aphrodite and her beauty have grasped the imaginations of artist of the past and also the present. They have all tried to express her beauty, hold her power over love, and recreate her legend. Her myth has turned into our myth, her ideal beauty has become our idea of beauty, her unattainable nature drives the myths of Hollywood and world of fashion, and confines many of our ideas of love to the world of “Prince Charming and Cinderella”. Aphrodite has been the symbol of Ideal Beauty for centuries and still is today, transformed from a goddess ruling high on Mt. Olympus to the advertisements that fill the streets.