Man at War

The body of this is made out of pourable rubber that is usually used to make rubber molds.  The animal resembles a man o' war. Despite its outward appearance, the man o' war is not a jellyfish but a siphonophore, which differs from jellyfish in that it is not actually a single creature, but a colonial organism made up of many minute individuals called zooids. Each of these zooids is highly specialized, and, although structurally similar to other solitary animals, they are attached to one another and physiologically integrated to the extent that they are incapable of independent survival.  

I was thinking about the drag community as a sihponophore, each drag queen serving a unique purpose and without each other, they cannot survive.  Man o war's are also genderless so I used feminine materials such as pearls, yarn and sewing string to decorate the body.  The masculine materials, the fishing lures and bait become feminine because of the blue glitter, pink heads and feather-like bodies.

PRAISE THE GAYS!

prints available through Society 6.

Four Little Monsters

 Little Bandit Monster

 

  Cyclops Slug

 

Squid In a Shell

 

  Purple Horned Monster

Early Summer Collages

 

Squid Growth

 Squidee

Happy Summer

Some detail shots of a few new collages I made this summer.  more in my etsy shop!

LOVE SLUGS

 

After creating "Consequence of Self Indulgence," I had a large amount of material that was loose but still tangled up and really unusable.  I took the tulle canopy from "Consequence of Self-Indulgence" and created two large slugs.  I treated the inside of the slug as an under painting and went back and detailed each one with puffy paint, zip ties and pom pom balls.  The form came from looking at images of Leopard Slugs mating, each slug has both female and male genitalia.  When they mate, they are impregnating each other simultaneously, the partnership is equal, neither one dominating the other.  The phallic form represents the penis and the glowing orifice, the vagina.  I added flickering lights, el wire and moon lights to imitate orgasm. Watch the video to get the full effect!

Sausage Drag

"Sausage Drag"

I stuffed pantyhose with Polyfil and spray painted the tips with fluorescent pink. I then added tinsel to the pink tips and capped them with a spotted pantyhose.  I used hand dyed yarn to give the tubes "camel toes."  They are hung from a metal ring that has been wrapped in yarn.

I was thinking about Drag Queens after watching RuPaul's Drag Race. I began thinking about the body as a simple form that is gendered by decoration and ornamentation. The phallic forms are created by materials that are designated to women: yarn, pantyhose and tinsel.  I used the decoration and material to gender the original masculine form.

Consequence of Indulgence (Spontaneous Installation)

"Consequence of Self Indulgence"


I was in a time crunch and had to create something in a couple of days for an event at Penn State, Arts Crawl.  I decided to hang tulle from the walls and simply move all of my rejected materials onto the canopy.  These are basically all the materials that faculty have told me look too kitschy or do not veer far enough away from their real identity.  I didn't want to buy anything new to create this work, I just wanted to experiment with out the guilt of material cost.  Aesthetically I was thinking about coral reefs, conceptually, I'm not quite sure.  I'm planning on making each side of the canopy into worms by simply rolling them up and sewing them into a cylinder.

Pocket Pussy Series

 "Aged in Angora"

 "Fuzzy Heart"

 Red and Tangled

 One Eyed Squid

I found this strange pearl purse at the thrift store and I thought it was very weird looking.  I ended up finding several more that I thought may go well in a series of work.  I started making molds by pouring paraffin wax into bunt trays for baking and a gum drop shaped ice tray.  I started assembling my pieces together and the first pocket pussy created was "One Eyed Squid."  I wasn't quite sure what I created, but it was weird and I liked it.  I started calling them pocket pussies because I wasn't sure what else they could be called.  I would like to make more of these, maybe as many as 25.  I like the first one that I created the best and I haven't been able to figure out how to make the rest as successful.  Maybe the final arrangement will make these more impressive.