On Feb. 1, Beyoncé announced that she was pregnant with twins in a series of photos available on her website. One picture of her posing with her baby bump against a wall of beautifully blossomed flowers and a Virgin Mary-esque veil on her head, which was posted on Instagram, received nine million likes. It became Instagram’s most liked photo, beating the Selena Gomez Coca-Cola picture.

Following the photoshoot, many people on social media questioned Beyoncé’s intentions behind the manner in which she shared the news of her pregnancy. Did she use social media as an easy platform to get people’s attention or was it more than just a public announcement? Why did Beyoncé use social media to share her news, and what does it mean?

On her official website, Beyoncé testifies to how important this revelation was for her: "We have been blessed two times over and we are incredibly grateful that our family will be growing by two, and we thank you for your well wishes.”

Considering the effort she put into the photoshoot, I think that the photoshoot is definitely more than just a public announcement. In creating the photo series, Beyoncé expressed her feelings toward welcoming her baby twins into this world.

After viewing the series of photos, I questioned how art is used to represent people’s emotions and feelings nowadays. Throughout the history of art, painters and sculptors have used their materials to create masterpieces. In Beyoncé’s case, however, it appears the photoshoot was about more than just creating a masterpiece. To me, her project is an expression of her inner feelings about her pregnancy and her journey, rather than an offering for the aesthetic consumption of others. But why did she pick visual art to deliver her message?

Based on the colors and materials she used in her photoshoot, art critics have suggested that she was indirectly stating that she was pregnant with a girl and a boy. One photo, in which her 5-year-old daughter Blue Ivy is handing her a flower, suggests that she is expecting another girl. It reminds me of the Arabic song Oummi Ya Malaki, or Mother my Angel, about a mother and a daughter. It also leads me to wonder, however, if contemporary art is only understood through visual representations. One plausible conclusion is that the visual arts are linked to technology, resulting in the development of videos, pictures, GIFs and short films, with social media providing the link between the two.

The ways in which people express themselves are countless, from writing books, to poems, short stories and personal essays — but Beyoncé chose to use colors and objects to send her message. However, since writing in general is an artistic approach to expression, Beyoncé also posted a few of her written pieces alongside her pictures to combine art forms and create something of her very own.

Furthermore, the floral background and Beyoncé’s floral headpiece link her relationship to mother nature, life and the Earth. In doing so, I believe Beyoncé emphasizes her decision to become closer to nature, making sure she maintains a healthy and positive lifestyle for herself and her twins. The flowers also symbolize growth. The photo in which Blue Ivy hands Beyoncé a flower can mean that Beyoncé is urging her daughter to grow and become like her, empowering her through nature.

Another photo that features Beyoncé against a background of the sky and clouds seems to suggest that she is imagining herself in a surreal place, imagining what is yet to occur. In another picture, Beyoncé is on top of a red car — which, to me, represents Beyoncé’s satisfaction in life, as though she is on cloud nine. The car has the same bright floral pieces bursting out of its front, middle and rear, metaphorically representing Beyoncé’s journey through pregnancy — a beginning, a middle and an end.

The way Beyoncé expressed how she feels about her pregnancy shows how much this really means to her. I disagree with those who think that she posted the photos as a publicity stunt. The fact that she created this artistic and visual way to share her news with her fans and to the public indicates that there is a genuine purpose behind sharing it the way she did. The technique she used to share her news, which provided a unique and new perspective of visual arts, indicated how valuable this is to her.