Alanna Crandall

Artist Critique #2

To begin describing this picture, I can tell you that there are a lot and I mean A LOT of snacks/junk food, laying around in a spread out mess. Amongst the midst of all that, there is a heavier set woman lying on top of the snacks. She is wearing an American flag bikini, a pink headband, designer sunglasses, and Coco Chanel high heels. On top of her belly roll and larger thighs, are some of the foods, just chilling. Also, in her left hand, she is holding one of the candy bars. This woman has her head slightly turned to the right, her arms spread out and it looks like to me that she has her balance shifted on her left hip. If you were to look closely at the background, meaning the junk food the fat girl is lying on, then you would notice that the packaging are of different colors. And if you were to take a closer look, then you would see that the colors are separated by their colors. And then if you were to try to figure out the pattern with the packages’ colors, you would realize that the pattern is very much like that of an American flag. The blue, green, and purple packaged foods are in the upper left hand corner and are in the shape of a square. Starting from the middle and then stretching to the upper left corner, the white and red stripes of the American flag are formed. That stripe effect will continue down the rest of the picture and will also be resembled on the other side underneath the bluish, purple square.

Henrich Kimerling created this picture, titled American Beauty. He is an artist from Slovakia. He said that the film American Beauty inspired this image. I have never seen that film; however, I believe that Henrich is trying to show the obesity in America through this picture. The title of this piece speaks to me. Because if you were to think about it, several people believe that if someone is fat, then they cannot be beautiful. To most people, obesity is vulgar so they tend to shun those who have the unfortunate pleasure of being overweight. In another sense, this picture can be talking about how fatter people need to have more self-confidence in themselves. The junk in the background is representing what the world’s food industries have become nowadays. America would be the worst at producing junk food or unhealthy snacks. That would be why that America is the most obese country in the world, which I find pathetic and saddening.

Overall, this is a great picture to represent the health issues in America. I like the message the artist displayed in the picture, and the quality is fantastic too. I don’t think I would change anything about this image. It has a lot of imagery and speaks for itself. So that would mean that I don’t have to speak anymore myself. Haha.

Here is the link to the website: http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=121&t=701270