KAWARTHA LAKES-With every stroke of the paint brush Ellie Arscott hopes to instill self-esteem in young girls. “I just wanted to see if there was a way that I could help change or help boulster them,” Arscott says. “Self-esteem is kind of the magic key”
The “Girls Stand Tall” campaign was launched after Arscott read an article in A Mighty Girl that said a girls self-esteem peaks at 9 years old. “I was floored because that’s so young. I was sitting across the table from my kid and I was like whoa, how is that possible?” Arcott explains. “I was thinking, wait a second there comes a point around that age that you go from knowing yourself to then being influenced by other girls around you and other people opinions.”
Arscott has two daughters, Mila and Asa who were 7 and 9 at the time she came up with the idea about a year ago. “Because I have a couple of daughters that are quite young, I want to do hand painted portraits of girls ranging in age from 4 to 19. Arscott explains. “The process begins with a photograph and I’m painting from the photograph onto a 6×6 wood panel. On the back of each portrait I want the sentence, I dream of becoming…. and that’s the part the girls get to fill out on their own.”
Arscott says she had an “a-ha” moment when she was trying to help her own girls navigate situations at school. “I can’t help them as a group anymore, I had to start helping them in themsleves and bring it back to how they are going to deal with a situation and at the end of the day it comes back to boosting their self confidence and being able to say how they feel and own that a little bit so others opinions and tactics can just roll off them.”
Girls Stand Tall is meant to start a positive conversation for girls about girls. “Once all the protraits are done I want to mount them all together to create a big visual impact for the girls and the community to just sort of illustrate the effect that girls have on their community and the world and illustrate to them that their voice is part of a bigger collective.” Arscott explains.
Arscott graduated from Fenelon Falls Secondary School and went on to study Interpretive Illustration at Sheridan College. The artist hopes to paint 200 portraits over the next few years. “I want to make a really strong visual impact.”
Once complete, Arsott will exhibit the work locally and later each girl will recieve a copy of her own portrait.
For more information go to https://www.facebook.com/GirlsStandTall/
