New work in progress -- Knife Cat

I'm getting started on a new painting, depicting a cat in a defensive posture, licking the sharp edge of a knife. I've chosen to go with an overall pink color scheme (inspired by Barbie haha) -- hopefully to draw focus to the kitty's mouth, and to solidify the reference the femininity. This image came to me after considering the below quotes as they apply to my girlhood. Sometimes, being a little girl meant being a tiny, ravenous creature who earned love by silently tolerating pain. This one is kind of a bummer, so I'm hoping the pink color scheme and eventual inclusion of glitter will soften things up.

“When you are not fed love on a silver spoon, you learn to lick it off knives.”

― Lauren Eden

“A woman's first blood doesn't come from between her legs but from biting her tongue.”

― Meggie C. Royer

Scrap Mirror, completed project

The scrap mirror is finally complete! Of course, this probably is not the kind of mirror I could do my makeup in, but there's something fascinating about gazing into it. When I look back at my face, it is heavily distorted, buried beneath fragments of plastic, as if I were gazing at my own reflection in polluted water. It feels like a haunting reminder to continue to recycle all of my plastic materials, to ensure this doesn't become real. Created with a dozen 1" circle mirrors, resin scraps, leftover glitter, and reclaimed acrylic sealed on a 12" vinyl record, mounted on a wire.

Throwback artwork -- Sinking

Revisiting "Sinking" from 2021 - another acrylic and resin painting with an orange and blue color scheme. Goldfish swim, surrounded by bubbles and thick, flowing black hair belonging to a woman who is deep blue in the face. With this painting, I was setting out to see what would organically come out on the canvas after picking a very limited color scheme. The orange and blues had me recalling goldfish I once had while in an abusive relationship, and I was able to tap into how much I missed those creatures, but remembering how suffocated I was those years ago. The acrylics used have a pearlescent quality, and a slight shimmer of microglitter runs through the resin - reminiscent of aquarium water.

Pearlescent acrylic paints, mica pigments, and holographic glitter sealed in epoxy resin on 11"x14" canvas board, mounted with a sawtooth hanger.