inevitable intruder

A green garden with flowers on black paper. In the middle there is a target with a drawing of a man's face on top of it. The man's eyes are blacked out. The excerpt from my journal describes an anger that I carry.

"When I am objectified by a man, I want to gouge his eyes out to make him feel the same pain and fear as me."

The garden is representative of the innate nurturing characteristic of women. This piece illustrates the constant imposition that straight-identified men often put on women. This face is different to every woman, but each of us has, at one point in our lives, been confronted with one of these predators. I've placed this man's face on the target because I want to reverse the roles. I want to make him feel as vulnerable as I often do. Each occurence of the letter "i" is highlighted in red to bring attention to the fact that the intruder does not go unnoticed.

This anger arises from the constant objectification of women that is built into our social structure, our constitution and the global community. Women are viewed as second-class citizens, and the heat-breaking reality is that because de-moralization is so pervasive in our culture, most people aren't even aware of the damage that occurs every moment.

dichotomy of love

elements of letting go

blue sky represents life breath, space and time.
clear water represents fluidity and acceptance.
sand represents the logical mind, being grounded and balance.
light represents hope, regeneration and vitality.
nakedness signifies truth, rawness and rebirth.

All of these combined are the elements of letting go.

This piece shows the light and dark side of letting go. It always feels so painful to let go of a friendship or a lover or a desire... but there's something greater to be learned once the grieving dissipates. The woman's naked body is juxtaposed with a backward-facing woman in a hooded sweatshirt in a city alley. This is to show that on the outside we all wear our armor, but when we truly need to be real with ourselves, nothing that covers us matters.

The flower in the woman's hand symbolizes the blossom that comes from letting go of something. In life, all things must come to an end, but where these relationships, people, ideas or hopes die, bloom flowers that are a bit wiser, genuinely compassionate, exquisitely beautiful and more loving. To truly let go of something is to find a deeper love for oneself and a deeper knowledge of oneself.

imbalance

This collage depicts a green triangle balancing on a white circle. On top of the triangle are five arrows, one in the direction that is heaviest and four pulling in the opposite direction. There is a thin strip of silver on the right-hand side of the triangle.

I’ve been struggling between who I am and who I want to be. Am I becoming the person I never wanted to be, or is it that the voice of “them” that I am internalizing? Do I really want to travel or am I just scared? Am I keeping myself from my Self?

The triangle represents change, green represents vibrancy. I believe that change can be difficult, but we choose to learn what we want from it. The fact that I have emerced myself in my job is represented by the single arrow going in the “right” direction. That one arrow is tipping the scales heavily. Most people in my life seem to think that traipsing around the corporate world is the perfect avenue for me... I'm not convinced. I'm realizing the value of true friends, grappling with the non-existence of my immediate freedom, and learning the importance of maintaining a healthful routine. I'm discovering new parts of myself and learning how to maneuver in a vast, unknown world.

quarter life crisis

Your greatest strength is your greatest weakness… what you want most, you most fear… balance in all things. This collage is a reflection of a time of huge transition in my life. The circle is gray to represent life being different shades of it. Life is not black and white. There must be boundaries, but life is merely a series of different perspectives. All truths are relative; all thoughts are relative. The artistic staircase represents the dichotomy between climbing the ladder of life and plunging into it. Upon arrival of every opportunity there in lies a choice of what we want our lives to be about; the next set in the creation of our lives. Meanwhile life is still flowing; a constant that can always be relied upon is change. This is illustrated by the wave of water flowing through the staircase. All of these are tied together with the shadow of black background to pronounce the interconnectivity of all people and facts of life.
The staircase… depending on who you speak to about each opportunity you could be plunging into a pit of despair or you could be moving up in the world. All the perspectives in the world are what make up the spectrum of the staircase and life is what you create from what you are given.

la santa de la puseta

The background is a pink, oddly shaped “X”. It has veins going through it to illustrate the life of the pussy. The “x” is the womyn chromosome-

There is a beautiful blonde woman who seems to be teasing the viewer. She wears a pair of sunglasses. No, look closer, they’re a pair of eyes. These are the eyes from an old soul, a woman who represents the womyn of the world. She is the one who knows the injustice that has been thrust upon women for centuries on end. This soul lives in the beautiful body because she has learned to adapt… to outwardly fit the mold she has been conditioned to show the world. She holds an ice cream cone with a “Y” in it. Behind the “Y” is a cage. On the bottom is a long cage, on it are 5 of the letter "y"s turned upside-down. The "Y" cages are to symbolize the social, physical, religious, emotional and sexual confines that male-dominated social structure has put on women throughout history.
The large cage is beneath her feet and upside down because the women of the world aren’t accepting these male-assigned confines. We are paving our own way, with heels. We are giving back these cages. The charms we’ve been conditioned to use have made us refute traditional gender dominance. We now use those charms to fight the oppressive ideologies- we start by delivering the reclaimed pussy cage, politely, in an ice cream cone. It’s our gift back to the social construct... Lick it.