My original concept for this project was going to be about pressures imposed on women to consume less and take up less space. But the image of the woman eating rocks, once I had photoshopped it, tickled me a lot. So I put her in a graveyard with a bunch of other hooligans, just doing what they seem to enjoy. The message is more about self-acceptance now, while you can still mingle above the earth (as opposed to below it).
Layer masks and clipping masks in Photoshop were my saviors for this project. Being able to go in with a brush and work with every detail of the images I was layering made me feel more connected to the work, and by the end of this project I could plop an image on there very quickly and naturally.
The line between surreal and realistic is something very tricky and nuanced to work with, but I think I achieved my goal in that at first glance, there is nothing wrong with this image. Obviously, rocks aren’t something most people consume regularly. But some people live solely on iced coffee half the day, too.
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