Jacqueline Stuart MFA

www.jacquelinestuart.com

Artist’s Bio

Although Jacqueline Stuart was born in Las Cruces, MN, she spent most of her early childhood outside of the U.S., residing in such places like France, Spain, Venezuela, Colombia, and Mexico. Soon after arriving to the U.S., around the age of ten, she felt pressure to conform to American standards of attitude, fashion, and beauty. Adding to the stress was her Latin American background. Being raised in an environment steeped in machismo, moreover having a subservient mother for a role model, Ms. Stuart began to question society’s portrayal of women and its consequences on self-esteem and body perception.
As she began to rebel from her upbringing, she encountered internal opposition from the socially learned behavior she had attained from her culture. Ms. Stuart realized she could use art-making as a vehicle to visually narrate her inner conflict. After a six-week trip to China, Ms. Stuart became inspired (and horrified) by the pervasive techniques of foot binding as a form of culturally embraced bodily torture. This made an indelible mark on her art.
Eventually she received a B.A. from Castleton State College, and a M.F.A. from the University of Pennsylvania. She has returned to graduate school and is working toward a M.S. in Counseling and Psychology at the University of Vermont. In addition to exhibiting her work, Ms. Stuart would like to become an art therapist and write books about the issues of self-objectification.

Artist’s Statement

I am interested in presenting the contradictions and ironies of the female experience. By investigating and adhering to the stereotypes in both media representations of ideal beauty and the sex industry, my personal narrative becomes heavily infused with internal conflict—persistently straddling between the need for feminism and the insidious craving for masochism and subservience.
Each drawing begins with a personal incident, usually a negative gender-specific occurrence that can be subtle or obvious in character. For instance, recent drawings have examined the psychological constructs of self-objectification and its effects on self-esteem. Issues that have been examined include cosmetic surgery, eating disorders, and objectified viewer’s perspective. By exploring media content, I begin to internalize the images of women into standards of measurement that must be achieved and upheld. Maintaining this visual and mental dialogue, enables me to show the struggle, animosity and desire when striving for these ideals.
My drawings are typically pastiche, assembled from imagination, celluloid female images, fashion magazines, and pornography (primarily bondage-inspired). The work usually contains both crudely drawn and well-rendered body parts. By combining these aspects together, I am ultimately looking to express the female dichotomy between desire and need, and between beauty and hideousness.