Hailey Turner 267: Creative Assignment 1

The Original Rosie the Riveter poster was made by artist J. Howard Miller. He studied art at the Art institute of Pittsburgh. He was hired by the Westinghouse company war production coordinating Committee to create a series of poster.At the time the purpose of these posters was to convince women to join the war effort and fill in for manufacturing jobs that had been left empty by the mass exodus of men who left for the war.Today the meaning of the work has transformed into a symbol of feminism and women's economic power. To me this work is a symbol than women are capable of doing any work a man can. This piece spoke to me as a woman going into manufacturing engineering, an uncommon career choice for a woman. The majority of my class have 3 females to every 50 males. It made me think that years ago I may not have had this opportunity if many great women before me had not paved my way. even less than 50 years ago gender equality was a huge issue and women felt a lack of career freedom. in fact my grandma said to me she went in to teaching because at the time women only had two options in college to be a nurse or a teacher, and she didn't believe she was intelligent enough to be a nurse. My work is a remix of the original poster, but rather than the plain background, the composition consists of modern and historic women doing things it was once believed they were incapable of achieving. The original Rosie was replaced by a self portrait. In the portrait I am posed as the original artwork. I am wearing the kind of clothes I would wear in a manufacturing lab or a factory, sleeves rolled up flannel, and safety glasses. I chose a bright pink and purple shirt, and wore my glittered safety glasses to show even while performing typical men's we should be proud and embrace our femininity.unlike the solemn expression of the woman in the original work I am pictured smiling, this is to show how the world is a much better for women today than at the time of the original work. The artwork reminds me that I am capable of doing great things today in part do to the people that came before me. I hope the phrase "We can do it" serves as a reminder that the biggest obstacle to women is not others, but our lack of confidence in ourselves. Self confidence in women is a real issue, while studies show women are actually better at math their confidence prevents them from achieving as high. It is also reported that only 50% of women negotiate salary out of a lack of self worth. we all sometimes need to remind ourselves that we can do it, that we can let our fear hold us back from our ability to do anything.