Marina Abramović's portraits contained so many different emotions. The way she captivated feeling and emotion made her portraits seem alive, rather than a stagnant representation of an individual, mostly herself. I particularly enjoyed her black-and-white portraits. The rather eerie settings she used made the portraits alluring and thought provoking. Her other words had very direct statements being made about women. Her work with the woman in the kitchen and the other of the woman amongst children in uniforms were particularly interesting to me. The way she captures the individual's face seems particularly important in her work.

Frida Kahlo's portraits, while very unique, displayed similar emotions. The medium is clearly different, as Kahlo used canvas and paint instead of photography. Many of the portraits involve a sort of solemn feel, or a sort of distress. This particular piece seems less emotional at first, when you first consider the coloration. Once you realize that the meaning of the picture on her forehead symbolizes her thoughts about death, you quickly reconsider your primary thoughts on the piece. I found the emotions behind this piece were related to the emotions behind Abramovic's pieces. I felt, distressed.

Cui Xiuwen's works were quite different from the other artists. Xiuwen's works seemed to had a recurring theme about them, with the young girls who looked very similar, with the white dresses and black hair. I usually like variety in an artists's portfolio, but I must say that I really enjoyed Xiuwen's common theme with the similar looking girls (who may actually be the same girls). Again, the idea I gathered was distress. Between the three artists, the most prevalent similarity (besides the fact that each artists works were based on femininity) is the repeated emotion of distress. Distress does not always as a "heavy" emotion. None of the works seemed particularly light hearted and positive.