My Body of Work

“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 

http://www.claudiaroseart.com