Leasha Overturf

The Details of Maintenance

I am about details. As I age I fear I will forget the details.

I am the caretaker in my family, and life is about their details and my details. I want beauty to remain, but I am not living in a beautiful place right now. I feel torn. And, I feel tired.

This project is about the continual blur of youth and beauty being in one’s face. At every opening of a magazine there is someone with perfect lips, perfect eyes, the perfect pout. I’m facing up to aging within and the continual change of one’s body.

At one moment, I’m happy with the way I look, and the next moment I’m contemplating what I would change. I don’t mind getting older as I feel smarter with every year. I just don’t want to lose the details.

This project started one evening after 5 hours on high heels. I extracted my feet from my shoes and my once perfect pedicure was scuffed, chipped and my feet were so swollen I could not stop staring at them. It was at that time I picked up my camera and started thinking about my physical changes in a day vs. longer periods of time.

I photographed my half made up face, my hands, my feet, and abstract parts of my body. Over time I started ripping magazines and using them in my photos as well. The magazine tears served as the icon for the “perfect details” in beauty and youth as well as the “torn” conflict I’m often feeling. All of this combined for the project I call The Details of Maintenance.