Week 5 artist: Laura Aguilar

One of this week's artist, Laura Aguilar, really impressed me. Through her photographs she narrates her story of self-acceptance and self-empowerment in a society where being "fat" is not deemed beautiful. As someone who was always self conscious about her body, Aguilar had a hard time feeling beautiful. She appears nude in mostly all her photographs as a way of expressing her love towards her body; it is her accepting herself and feeling beautiful. She explained that the one thing that she does not get a lot is "touch". This was really saddening to hear. It was evident through her photographs that the feeling of "touch" is very important to her. She always appeared to be in touch with nature in an intimate way. Her body seemed to be one with nature. I admire her bravery by displaying herself naked because that is never something easy. Not even I would feel comfortable being naked in front of a camera and display it as art. The fact that she also has a disability makes her artwork more admirable. Obviously, her photographs do not indicate her disability, but it has not stopped her from pursuing her artwork. I appreciated that the Professor played the video in class because suddenly her photographs made more sense. I actually felt like I was understanding her pain and her struggle which evoked compassion in me. She reappropriated something deemed as negative and spread the idea that being big is not a requirement for beauty. I can clearly see the peace within herself about her body through her pictures which is the best part of these pictures.