A print that I designed as part of the Take Hold exhibition held at the Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester that explored the themes of body positivity and women.

I vividly remember seeing the statue of Venus in an art gallery, the depiction of ‘beauty’ itself, with her soft womanly shape, and belly rolls not too dissimilar from my own. This goddess who once was held up as the epitome of the female form. It goes to show that even goddesses from times gone by would be seen as having imperfections when held up to today’s impossible beauty standards and what the ‘perfect’ body should look like. There is no use in comparing ourselves to unreachable beauty standards, when our bodies are our bodies, and we are definitely not one-size-fits-all.

This artwork is to remind us that we are all Venus. To celebrate our bodies no matter what size or shape we are, beauty comes in all different shapes and sizes, and we should admire our own forms the way we do those around us, find our own imperfections beautiful, and see the beauty where before we would only see what we would want to change.

The print is available in either A3 or A4 giclee print, comes unframed, on Museum Fine Art Paper, 280gsm.