Frances Cannon: Leading The Body Positivity Movement One Artwork At A Time

All images featured in the article are taken directly from the artist’s Instagram: frances_cannon

Art has always been used as a way to reflect a person’s own experience in the world, and this is seen in artists throughout time. In the world we live in today, art is everywhere; with social media being the main form of artists engage with, they have adapted to use this platform to share their art.

Frances Cannon, an artist based in Melbourne Australia, is one of those artists using social media to showcase her style of art and to speak out on issues she sees as most important to her. Her main social media platform is Instagram, which for an artist makes complete and utter sense, as it is the main way to share photos and videos on the internet today. Cannon’s work is bold and brave, and speaks to people in a beautiful way, which you can see in the comments of her Instagram photos and in the 95.6k followers she has.

Cannon is an outspoken advocate for body positivity and inclusive feminism, and her art reflects that wholeheartedly. Each piece of artwork, whether it’s digital or on paper or canvas, is a reflection of herself and the things she holds dear to her heart.
Posting her artwork online means she has amassed a massive amount of followers, who share in her ideas and support her in what she does. This allowed for her “Self Love Club” to emerge, which lists the following rules for any members wishing to join:

1. You must always show yourself respect, love, forgiveness and understanding
2. You must show each other respect, love, forgiveness and understanding
3. You must be kind to your body and you must take care of your mental health

The people that identify and want to be apart of this beautiful club, get the words “Self Love Club” tattooed on their body, in a sort of ritualistic, positive embrace of each other and themselves. Although, like any online following, she gets hate messages and ignorant comments, she’s outspoken in her complete lack of care for them. She’s very vocal about showing that her work is for her and for her to show her support and her love for all people.

Her work is diverse and embracing of all bodies, particularly those who are commonly pushed out of the shown narrative of what it’s like to be a “woman” or societally accepted. She features curvaceous, hairy, natural and big women who come with messages of loving oneself and accepting oneself and others. She tries to showcase women with disabilities, women who are not able-bodied, trans women, queer women, women of color. She uses her own narrative to express the dissatisfaction she has with the way society pushes aside these women in favor of cis-gendered, able-bodied, women who have what is deemed to be the “ideal and healthy” body type.

Caption for above image taken from Instagram: “Primrose • I use they/them pronouns. I’m a studying and working actress with dreams of being a filmmaker. I love all things gardening and birds, and would love to tell you my story of being a femme-presenting afab non-binary person!”

Frances Cannon is inspiring in so many ways, in her outspoken approach to art, in her loud and proud message of body positivity, and in the way she uses her art and her platform to spread the message of love and acceptance and the importance of listening to each person’s singular experience in the world. Art has always had a way of uniting people, and that hasn’t changed with the growing use of varying medias, and Frances Cannon’s artwork can attest to that.