Yeah, I should have posted this piece last week, when Susan Boyle was THE most important news story on the planet. Now it's all swine flu, all the time. But let's go back to the good old days, when it was all Susan, all the time.
Am I sick of Susan Boyle? Not in the slightest! She's easy enough to caricature, and that's all that matters. Yet, it's hard to do much with her, really, in terms of caricature. I mean, what's left to exaggerate? The thatch-like eyebrows, the ferret eyes, the too-rosy cheeks on a block-shaped face, the hair that resembles a mat of worn-out Brillo pads. The dowdy outfits. And, last but not least, the very small mouth that frames her glorious voice. They're all great traits for caricature. However, taken together, they don't leave much to the caricaturist's imagination.
Since Miss Boyle's explosion onto the international stage, via her You Tube performance on "Britain's Got Talent," the publicists have gotten to her. She has already undergone a bit of a makeover. The hedges above her eyes have had a bit of a trim. She has clearly been to a hairstylist, and she's wearing nicer outfits. But Susan Boyle will always be remembered for her first impression, which I've tried to preserve here.
And what of the two singing stars I've included in the imaginary Susan Boyle Trio? In my opinion, Beyonce Knowles has succeeded in making exceptional beauty exceedingly bland. She appears to have had a makeover, as well. One that has been carefully crafted as her career ascended, from lead singer of Destiny's Child, to world megastar. Apparently, the purpose of the makeover (not that she needed one) was to render her physical appearance offensive to no one.
...About a dozen years ago, Time Magazine ran a story on America's increasing ethnic and racial diversity and mixing. To illustrate the point, the magazine put a computer-generated female face on the cover. In the article, the authors explained how data was programmed for the computer to produce such an image. The result was a bronze-toned, but rather bland-looking goddess. Had Time been searching for real face to make its point, they could have hired Beyonce for the photo shoot.
Still, Beyonce is not difficult to caricature, as long as one keeps two things in mind: the overall bronzeness, hair as well as skin; and her distinctively-shaped eyebrows.
And Taylor Swift? While she hails from southeast Pennsylvania, she'd look right at home in rural Tennessee or Mississippi. A ghost-like waif with sharp corners to her face, little, squinty blue eyes, and a bit of a potato nose, she's a snap to caricature. As "country-looking," in her own way, as Miley Cyrus.
Well, thanks for stopping by. If you'd like to see more samples of my work, click here.
