“All art is autobiographical; the
pearl is the oyster’s autobiography.”
Federico
Fellini
The Feminine Physique
1980
When I was
young, I wanted to be a woman of strength and power and beauty. After I
completed a B.F.A. in Studio Art, I put away my welding torch, canvases and
paints to begin a living sculpture of muscle and sinew.
The desire
to be more than what I saw in the mirror filled me up. It propelled me like
rocket fuel! It was the desire the brain has for thinking, the heart for beating
and muscles for moving. It was voracious and limitless.
I built a
body that was so tight I felt like I was balancing on stilts when I walked.
Every limb was shaven to create a smooth silhouette. Blood ran like blue rivers beneath the skin of my armpits.
My skin
looked smooth, yet was hard as marble. My back was geometric patterns of
muscle. Triangles and trapezoids fit together like pieces of a puzzle. My
abdominal muscles looked like a Hershey bar with raised squares taut as a trampoline.
Three-and-a-half
decades later, I am ready to give thanks for my body art and where it led. I
caught the eye of actors, gym owners, photographers, journalists and promoters who
were, in essence, my collectors. I slipped into the role of a pioneer in the
sport of women’s bodybuilding, though to me it was always art rather than
sport.
In 1980, I
was the first California Bodybuilding Champion and runner-up in the first
American Championships. In the tabloids, I was called “America’s Superwoman”
and “a symbol of the new beauty available to women” in men’s magazines. In
Brazil, journalists called me “The Wonder Woman”. I was featured in “World News
Tonight” and “Wide World of Sports”, on the pages of People Magazine, Sports
Illustrated and The National Enquirer,
among others. The notoriety led to jobs as contributing editor for national
magazines.
Like most
artists, I was always dissatisfied with my art. I see it differently now. Age
does that to you. If you are paying attention, you discover age unlocks the
judgments you once held. Even the judgments you held against yourself.
I now
acknowledge that I was a very successful artist featured in coffee-table books
and, I lately discovered, inducted into the International Federation of
Bodybuilding & Fitness Hall of Fame. It is time to give thanks.
Art takes a
myriad of forms—it could be your garden, scrapbook, business or even your life.
If you don’t appreciate its beauty and success, who will?
©Claudia
Rose, Ph.D.
unknown photographer
