In this year long performance piece and photography project, I woke up everyday and documented the exact amount of time it took me to put on my makeup and style my hair. Then I used a point and shoot camera, in auto-mode, to take a selfie and post it to Flickr. This beauty ritual deals with the un-ending cycle of daily beauty routines. The term "living for the neck up" is used in cosmetic and fashion industries as a way to market products to women of size. Many fat women feel that their face and hair are the only way to present as attractive. Commonly fat women hear things like "you have such a beautiful face", furthering the disconnect and lack of control fat women often associate with the rest of their bodies. This project was a way to document my own struggles with beauty culture and my own implications in that process of make-up and "living for the neck up". 

After a year of make up and hair styling, I spent a total of 620.14 hours, which translates into approximately 3 weeks 6 days 5 hours and 23 minutes on my beauty ritual.  Below is a short animation of all the selfies from the project.  

This project was exhibited in the 2012 show "Look Attractive" at the University of Kansas, KS. Additionally this work was also included in the "CUTTING EDGE: Masters in Contemporary Art" exhibition at the Auditorium al Duomo, Florence, Italy in 2012.