The Longevity of Beauty
Creating "The Longevity of Beauty" was both an act of rebellion and an act of love. In a world that constantly tells us we are not enough—not young enough, not smooth enough, not perfect enough—this piece stands as my defiant response to the beauty industry's manipulation and my tender tribute to authentic living. The foundation of this work, a vintage ELLE magazine cover, was chosen deliberately. These glossy pages have long been the vehicles for selling us the lie that aging is failure, that wrinkles are flaws to be erased, and that our worth diminishes with each passing year. I wanted to reclaim this space, to transform it into something that tells a different story entirely. Every layer of this collage speaks to the complexity of our relationship with beauty and time. The fragmented images and overlapping text represent the overwhelming noise of anti-aging promises—serums that claim to turn back time, procedures that promise eternal youth, products that suggest we can somehow cheat the natural progression of life. But beneath this commercial chaos lies a deeper truth, embodied in the figure of the bullfighter. My father was many things in his remarkable life: a bullfighter who faced danger with grace, a clothing designer who understood true elegance, an entrepreneur who built something from nothing. But most importantly, he was a man who taught me that strength and beauty come from within. The bullfighter in this piece is my father—not as he appears in any photograph, but as he lives in my memory: courageous, authentic, and beautiful in ways that no magazine could ever capture or product could ever replicate. He raised me to be strong like a bull, yet classy and sassy. These seemingly contradictory qualities now make perfect sense to me. True strength lies in embracing who we are at every stage of our lives. True class comes from carrying ourselves with dignity regardless of our age. True sass is the confidence to reject society's narrow definitions of beauty and worth. This piece is my meditation on the hypocrisy that surrounds us. We live in a culture that simultaneously celebrates youth while fearing aging, that promotes self-love while selling self-doubt, that claims to value authenticity while rewarding artifice. "The Longevity of Beauty" asks us to consider what beauty really means and what truly lasts. The beauty that endures is not found in a bottle or achieved through a procedure. It lives in the laugh lines earned through joy, the wisdom gained through experience, the strength developed through overcoming challenges. It exists in the stories we carry, the love we give, and the courage we show in simply being ourselves. My father's beauty was never about his appearance—it was about his spirit, his resilience, his capacity to live fully and love deeply. That beauty didn't fade with time; it only grew more profound. That is the longevity of beauty I want to celebrate: the kind that deepens rather than diminishes, that grows more precious rather than less valuable, that connects us to what matters most. In creating this work, I hope to honor not only my father's memory but also every person who has ever felt inadequate in the face of impossible beauty standards. We are all beautiful in our becoming, in our aging, in our authentic selves. That is the beauty that truly lasts—the beauty that no industry can manufacture and no passage of time can diminish. This piece is my love letter to authentic living and my challenge to a world obsessed with artificial youth. It is my reminder that the most beautiful thing we can do is to age with grace, to carry our stories proudly, and to find strength in our truth. That is the longevity of beauty—not in preserving what was, but in celebrating what is and what continues to become.
