When you seek to demonstrate independence or strength in front of an audience, it is common to strike a pose or look off in the distance with a strong pensive gaze. Stella Tyler’s sculptures of nude women give off this air of strength and independence in the same way that we would act to show confidence. None of her sculpted women make eye contact with you showing that they are not looking for your eyes to look at them while they pose nude. This lack of eye contact shows that the women could care less about what the observer thinks about them. Her sculptures are also all depicted in non-sexual poses showing that these women are showing off who they really are by being nude, but they are not consumed with being sexual or pleasing a man who would be looking at her. These women do not draw attention to their being nude like the European paintings. When you observe that their gaze is directed somewhere else, you think less about their nudity and more about what they are thinking while they gaze in that particular direction. The sculpture “Thoughtful Mood” specifically demonstrates this idea of re-directing the eye of the observer. The woman is bent over with her elbow propped on her knee and hand supporting her head underneath her chin, almost like the sculpture “The Thinker” in a standing position. Her pose serves to slightly cover up the fact that she is naked and she stares pensively off in the distance. “Thoughtful Mood” exemplifies this strength and independence of women by showing a nude woman looking off in the distance as an explorer would look upon a new world.
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