2016 portraits

 "I didn't ask you to kiss me"

 "You were supposed to wait for me"

 "The devils are here"

 "Black Butterfly"

 "I didn't ask for you to silence me"

"Cicada"

 "I didn't ask you to touch me"

 "I didn't ask you to beat me"

 "I didn't ask to have sex with you"

 "Our doubts are traitors"

 "The lunatic, the lover and the poet"

 "When dreams do show me thee"

"I have Immortal longings in me"

The Art of Cosplay

When I'm not ranting and raving about gender inequality, I do actually do some really cool and odd commissions. Like Cosplay shoots. The lovely model, Carnage Cosplay makes her own costumes and then gets me to capture them in a cool mashup of her personality and the character she is portraying. One thing they all have in common, which is why I love doing this so much, is they are all strong, tough characters. Mentally, or physically, it doesn't matter, they all share that element of strength, and I adore that. If you want to buy prints of these, Carnage Cosplay sells them on her http://carnagecosplay.storenvy.com/ page.

A beautiful apocalypse

Is is a desire for the end? Or a longing for dramatic change?
These photographs were taken in a cleared section of pine plantation, so the destruction and decay is real. The dress was a glorious old bridesmaid's dress from the 90's. It helped combine my fascination with history with my love for the science-fiction that I could see so clearly in the landscape around me. So with these works, I invite you to ask yourself, are you happy with where you are, with your life, or are you just waiting for a huge change, an amazing change, to sweep you away. Maybe one day I'll get to be a part of great change.

Inspired by the 1920s

I never really know where my research and searches will take me next, but then I found the beautiful and sexy photographs of beautiful and stunning women of the 1920s. Given my love of cinema and theater, when I found Alfred Cheney Johnston's portraits of the Ziegfeld Follies girls, I felt I discovered a refreshing female “prettiness”, and was so inspired. Given my fascination with medieval history and post apocalypse theories, we get this body of work. I found I was also jealous of those 20's ladies, because they were so brave and revolutionary. They were natural, and as yet still uninfluenced about what their naked bodies should look like. Now, not only are we told how our make up should be, what clothes we should wear, we also get told that wrinkles on our stomachs are wrong, stretch marks are wrong, bruises and scars are ugly, pubic hair is bad, fat is bad... well as far as I'm concerned, I am so over it all. I am so over being told that I need to accept that straight men have sexual needs and that i need to make my body ready for that. I'm so sick of watching friends be abused and used by men who have yet to realize that what they are doing is wrong. And yet, if you want to breastfeed in public, that's wrong. If you don't want to wear a bra, you aren't properly dressed. If you don't want to shave, you are lazy. WHAT IS WRONG WITH OUR SOCIETY! SERIOUSLY! WHY DO WE PUT UP WITH THESE DOUBLE STANDARDS??? And that is why I am jealous, because those gorgeous women in the 20's started a revolution, which so many others around me seem to either have forgotten, been brainwashed to think has been won, or are too scared to stand up and say what they think. So this body of work is a glamorous protest. Well, I tried to make it glamorous.

And that, boys, is how it's done

Unfortunately for me, being a practicing artist doesn't pay the bills. So to get by I have a job in retail as well. I do actually enjoy it, so I guess that makes it all ok.
But, every shift I work I get hit on, asked out, or "pet-named". It's something I have to deal with all the time as a woman. Sometimes it's sweet, I get made to laugh, I am classily handed a business card with a number, but other times it's quite degrading and demanding and rather misogynistic.
Today, however, a true gentleman walked into my shop, and I feel it's worth sharing.
I was sitting behind the counter, reading my book, as is actually part of my job, and I was quietly approached by a man with a friendly smile and two large coffees.
"So I have two coffees, and I was wondering if you might like one,' he said to me.
"Really?"
"Yes really, for you, if you want it," he replied.
"Thank you," I returned with true sincerity.
He returned my smile with warmth, and wandered around the store, bought an item, wished me a good afternoon and left.
There was no smut, there was no assumptions, there was no pressure, and was not very long. And it made me feel lovely. Now that it was it supposed to happen.
Now if only it was Elijah Wood or Tom Hiddleston doing that in my store...