Artist Statement
What lives within desire? The pretty answer is love. The honest answer is obsession. What primal urge shows itself more ardently? Our obsessions are ourselves. Our identity, our god, our lineage. They drive us to consume, to absorb, and to become. I have always found myself most alive in the throes of obsession. To hyperfixate on something means to absorb its energy as my own. To become this hybrid of myself and whatever is making me feel so good. The dance between intense desire and intense consumption has colored my behavior, my creativity, and my sexuality. Women are often afraid to express their obsessions, especially as they relate to their sexual or romantic interests. Wearing hypersexuality openly as a woman is largely seen as criminal. Removing this shame in the exploration of these themes was integral to the work.
Discussing feminine sexuality can often be alienating. So the accessibility of this work revolved around choosing metaphors that are born of the natural world. The three main motifs are all naturally occurring yet still relate heavily to themes of obsession, consumption, and sexuality. Cherries have a long history of associations with the female body; however, they appear in this work as a symbol of obsessive practice, each little one having to be carefully chewed to avoid a poisonous pit. The mouth: a more direct reference to the act, violence, and beauty of consumption. Something inherently necessary and inherently violent. Finally, the praying mantis. The female praying mantis’s instinct for sexual cannibalism has long made her a symbol for all-consuming desire and rightly placed her within this work.
This project combines self-portraiture, printmaking, and clothing design. The large self-portraits made with dry pastels are meant to depict my image and environments in a way that is both realistic and dreamlike, with imagery that evokes the outer and inner experiences surrounding obsession and consumption. The wallpaper was created using stamps made from impressions of my teeth, layered with my kiss prints. The bustier and garter skirt come from my personal wardrobe and were dyed with cherry juice and embellished with clay cherries, religiously sculpted and attached to the fabric.
Good enough to eat.
