Celebrity Antidote

An artist from Newcastle has created an exhibition designed as an antidote to perfect celebrity images in glossy magazines.

Anne Cohen set out to counter what she calls the "obsession with beautiful faces and bodies" by portraying ordinary people as they really are, complete with lumps, bumps and bulges.

Now an exhibition of 50 of Anne's paintings and drawings - titled Common People, Like Me - has gone on show.

And Anne chose not to stage her exhibition in a gallery, but instead opted for a Newcastle pub.

"My art is for everybody and a pub is where everyday people go," said Anne, who lives in Fenham in Newcastle.

Anne, who graduated from Chelsea School of Art and gained an MA in art and the environment from Sunderland University, often shows her subjects smoking, carrying those few extra pounds and not exactly followers of fashion.

She said: "But they are people having fun, they are relaxing and enjoying themselves. There is superficial beauty and there is real beauty and I try to show the beauty inside people. The exhibition is in response to the air brushed images we see in magazines. I think they are boring and bland and I get fed up with them. I want to show real people as they are. I am not out to make everyone look gorgeous."

Anne continued: "I think that everyday people are interesting. I like lived-in faces."

Anne admits that many people will seek to present themselves in the best light.

She said: "Often we edit our own personal photographs and most of us are tempted to only keep and show the best.

"I am not saying that we shouldn't make the best of ourselves, but the exhibition shows everyday people and they have a different sort of beauty."

Anne believes that the glossy magazine images put pressure on younger people.

She said: "I think it can be hard for young people who think they have to live up to these images.

"But it is a good thing to be happy in your own skin."

One of Anne's earlier ventures attracted international attention.

In 2007, she placed a spike outside her front door in Sidney Grove and impaled the junk mail which arrived every day.
After a year the pile of mail was six feet high.

Anne said: "I wanted to show just how much junk mail comes through one door and you can multiply that by every door in the street and so on."

For more information contact Anne Cohen on 07954141932