She is 4.3 inches high, prehistoric, and I find her beautiful.
The Venus of Willendorf is voluptuous and curvy, and speculation abounds as to why she was created. Her arms seem to disappear into her breasts and she has no feet. Anonymous (faceless), recognizable by her ample body, this early work of art is a tiny sculpture that can rest in one hand.
Beauty tends to be defined by culture and era but artists see pulchritude where the rest of society may not. The Venus, also known as the "Woman of Willendorf", doesn't reflect mainstream criteria of what a beautiful woman should look like, and yet many on this planet are like her, round, fleshy, bewitching, and sensuous.
I initially sprouted as a tall, lean beanpole, envious of my teen friends who were built like women. One need only look at one episode of Mad Men to know that attractive girls were rounder then.
What intrigues me most about the Willendorf figurine, is that I have felt like she looks; heavy, without vision or focus, and stuck in one place. So many associations and thoughts flow through my mind as I stare at this "Eve" in the shape of a pear:
personal acceptance,
beauty benchmarks,
water retention,
anger, sadness and frustration,
weight,
discotheques,
fancy clothes,
tight clothes,
braided hair,
motherhood,
the pillow breasts of grandmothers...
The list goes on ad infinitum, a soup of thoughts and feelings that feeds me as I draw "The Willendorf Sisters". One wears a dress with vertical stripes because everyone knows that they make a body look slimmer than horizontal ones. Colourful shoes accent an otherwise black, white and gray composition. The footwear is symbolic:
Time to move on.
Time to dance.
Time to build bunions.
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