On Wednesday, I was lucky enough to be part of a wonderful event, organised by my good friend Jess. The founder of Positively Me!, Jess is a body positivity campaigner and organised an event to promote body positivity and diversity with mass media and the fashion market. The event included a number of talks on diversity and inclusivity, with representatives from Dove, Action For Change and PINNT, as well as Jess talking about her own experiences with negative body image and her journey to creating Positively Me! This was followed by a body positive fashion show with members of the public proudly sharing their own stories and strutting their stuff, showing off their unique qualities that are often not represented in the media and fashion industries.

I was honoured to not only be able to share some of works that discuss body positivity and the representation of the body, but to also give a talk about my painting practice and how I am examining the positioning of the body in contemporary society, through my work.

Below, you can see an excerpt from my talk, as well as some pictures of the works displayed. I would urge you all to check out the fantastic work Jess and others like her are doing, just search Positively Me! on Facebook or Instagram, and you can watch interviews with some of the fantastic models who walked in the fashion show!

I can’t wait to see what this wonderful organisation does next!