Top 109 Quotes & Sayings by Petra Collins
Explore popular quotes and sayings by a Canadian artist Petra Collins.
Last updated on September 17, 2024.
It's just so humanizing to see someone be real.
I'm used to being told by society that I must regulate my body to fit the norm. I'm used to the fact that images of unaltered women are seen as unacceptable.
Art was - and is - my biggest outlet. I'd probably die if I didn't do it.
Social media has been such a big important thing for young artists and minorities because it's a community to get noticed. It's having an audience that was never there before.
It's so rare to see a woman lose control and also gain it back. Women are always told, 'Oh, be in control of your feelings,' and a woman is never allowed to express her anger without being demonised as being PMS-y.
I think the gender norms of emotion are horrendous. Being masculine means showing zero emotions, but having the choice to be angry or depressed. Being female means you are one dimensional - if you show more than that, you are a psycho, hysterical, or historically, a witch.
Occasionally, I'll wear glitter or blue eye shadow.
Curating, in the modern sense, is something I gravitate to. Taking different ideas from a bunch of different places and putting them into one place or space, a story that makes sense or a new idea. Everything is remixed and taken from other things to make something new.
I look for subjects who have stories to tell - who are looking to tell something.
Live what you support online; do things.
I don't know what I would've done without it. I really struggled in school with reading and writing. Art was my refuge - my way of speaking, of dealing with my own issues and connecting with the world.
When you see stories about women that aren't being told by women, it can make you feel like you don't exist.
I think it's important for not just me but women of color, trans women, and people who are marginalized to be telling stories of themselves. It's important for us to be behind the lens.
My mind is changing all the time. I can't live in a space that has a fixed aesthetic. I just need a blank slate when I come home.
I love working in groups - I think it makes each individual more powerful.
Being taken seriously as a young woman is the biggest hurdle as I grow older.
People are always like, 'Did you purposely do something to make people uncomfortable?' And I say the reason why it's uncomfortable is because it's either something that we can't talk about or aren't supposed to talk about, and they're images that aren't ever seen.
I really don't believe in the word 'selling out.'
I was depressed at a very young age - mental illness runs in my family, especially on the female side.
I wish I didn't think about what my body looks like. It can be done - it's just a long process.
Everyone has a mirror face that's so different from their natural face. And I think it's interesting, seeing the way people want to be viewed when they're putting themselves together.
We live in such an image-heavy world that not seeing yourself in that landscape can really make it tough to feel human, to feel like you are part of the world.
Women's emotions are constantly labeled. Any slight deviation from 'pleasantness,' and we are labeled as hysterical. When we are angry, sad, depressed, or manic, we are immediately seen as unfeminine or ugly or weak.
When a woman is anything but pleasant, she is labeled as whiny, hysterical, etc.
How girls perceive themselves is interesting, and how they act when they're looking in the mirror.
The selfie is revolutionary to me. It is, I think, the only point in history where masses of young girls and women have been able to control, create, and publish images of themselves.
For me, being in a car listening to music has always been my one spot to think.
I get why feminism can be intimidating; sometimes it can seem like this exclusive club.
I was very depressed at a young age and felt like I didn't have agency towards that. Being 'female' meant I couldn't be that - I couldn't be angry, loud, sullen. Being sad meant I was weak.
Just being with a group of girls and experiencing sadness together - it's a pretty powerful thing.
Oh my God. Brian De Palma. I love him.
I'm used to seeing women being degraded, slut shamed, harassed for what they look like. Even the most powerful women in the world are measured by their appearance and constantly ridiculed for it.
I always had this feeling, what I wanted to do. I was trying to work out myself, my frustrations, my body. I couldn't really pinpoint. I started taking photos of my sister and her friends. I was 15, exploring what it meant to be a 15-year-old girl.
It's very insulting when you're in charge and someone is talking down to you.
I consider myself endlessly lucky to have access to the Internet and technology. Through it, I've found myself and have been able to join a new discourse of females, young and old, who strive to change the way we look and treat ourselves.
My mother struggled immensely with mental illness, and so did I. She grew up bipolar, but it was never diagnosed nor recognized. It was shrugged off like a 'symptom' of being female - of her being weak. I also experienced this growing up: I felt that the great pain I experienced was a dramatisation.
A good jean that fits someone's butt right is just amazing. It's just classic.
I'm so pro-selfie because I think it's a tool that allows girls to create images of their own and of themselves.
I really wanted to feel strong, I wanted my subjects to feel strong, but I didn't know how to do that. It's really hard for, I guess, every woman to not internalize misogyny. I just learned as I went on how to best capture my subjects without objectifying them.
I want people to see themselves in a person. I never want someone to aspire to be someone else.
If I have extra money, I always love to support my friends who're making art.
It's so important for women to create images of women - or any group, at that.
I'm either working or I'm lying in bed the entire day.
My style motto is pretty classic: you give off a positive energy when you wear what you're most comfortable in.
Hashtag activism is a catalyst, but things have to actually happen in real life.
When I was 16, I created this online platform for female artists. I messaged women who I loved; that's how I got work and connected with people. You don't need to plead for entry into a system that doesn't want you anyway.
I'm very lucky that I'm not a photographer for hire - people hire me for me. I go into every commercial work with an art focus, with that lens; every brand I've worked for just lets me do whatever I want to do. I have full creative freedom.
Just like any other girl, I felt pressure to look a certain way. Act a certain way.
If your story is being told by someone who doesn't really know it, it's not going to come out accurate. A lot of it has to do with context. Whoever's behind the camera or pen or whatever.
The selfie is a powerful tool, but it can also be dangerous, and I am fascinated with the process of it because there is a level of self-monitoring.
As much as I preach self-love, it's so hard for me to love myself. It's really hard, and it's just about building a good network of people and, in this case, a good network of artists. Trying to live your ideals as best as you can.
With social media and all the new technology, there's just more interfaces around and reminders to constantly be working on our body.
That's what I look for in models: Someone who can tell a story and has a presence in front of the camera.
I know having a social media profile removed is a 21st century privileged problem - but it is the way a lot of us live. These profiles mimic our physical selves and a lot of the time are even more important. They are ways to connect with an audience, to start discussion, and to create change.
You don't have to wait for anyone's approval to do things.
Success doesn't happen overnight.
I didn't see spaces where female artists could exist and exhibit their work. So I created a platform for this - one that allowed our works to be seen, but to also weave a community of women that could lean on and work with one another.
You don't have to try to get a job and go through set steps before you start a career or start your life. That's what I want young girls to know - you can do anything you want. Just start.
I'm definitely a Sagittarius. I'm such a fire sign.
There's definitely a romanticism of youth, like, everywhere. Specifically with women, they kind of only exist between the age of 15 to 25.
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