Saturday, April 5, 2008

On Beauty or The Wonders of Photoshop or better yet, Unabashedly Superficial Ramblings




By the way, that first title selection is a fabulous book by Zadie Smith. But that is another post. I am writing because I just joined Facebook. I would never have joined had Carolina not urged me to be her friend on Facebook and rather than offending her with an explanation in very poor Spitalian and also wanting to have a relationship with her I joined. Also, Chris and Helen have promised very exciting scrabble games. As if I will have any time for an of that. So, I joined and then came the task of putting up a profile pic. The first one was a goof. A silly picture of myself that was totally unflattering and a joke, and really who cares about a photo of yourself on Facebook, I mean I have two kids to keep alive, cockroaches to ward off, a stagnant artistic career and a bunch of other pressing things to consider on a daily basis. But then I decided I would try and take a pretty picture of myself. Now I am going to get honest here. It was really hard for me to take a picture of myself that I liked. That didn't used to happen. My skin has been misbehaving for a couple of years now. I have enormous bags under my eyes and I am starting to get worry lines between my eyebrows. It sounds like I am complaining but I am not. And I am not asking for a borage of " but kelly you are so beautiful." Note that I did not say that I was ugly. But, I have gotten over the "pretty" thing considerably. I have had two kids. I consider the fact that I am only 5 lbs. over my pre-pregnancy weight nothing short of miraculous. I have stretch marks. Those are not fun. I will never wear a bikini again. But I have two amazing kids so I don't care. I also have a husband who told me the other day that I could gain fifteen + pounds and still be totally hot. And really when you're with someone long enough you realize that good looks only go so far. Perfectly beautiful people can be boring as hell, have no sense of humor, be dumb as rocks and bad lovers....I would rather have all those other things. And I find "perfectly beautiful" quite boring (I prefer "interesting" looks). Rose would agree wholeheartedly with me on that point. But, I digress. I took a dozen or more quick pics with the camera an was unsatisfied and then I remembered PHOTOSHOP! Woohooo! I know it is not really me in that photo, not exactly but I don't care. It felt good to erase those lines and spots, inject a little color and glow...... I think it might have a special therapeutic effect, if used sparingly.

Note that I didn't add an unedited pic of myself. I don't feel ready for that yet.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Okay, you didn't ask for it but I'll say it anyway, you ARE beautiful! :o) You don't need Photoshop to prove that. :o)

I have yet to get a picture of myself for Facebook (or anything else) that doesn't show my 3 chins! I must have gained 40 lbs. since college days... ah well.

Taking photos of yourself is just a plain weird and tricky business all around... I have yet to come close to mastering it...!

Jen :o)

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