2006, digital print from a color negative, 23.5" x 16.5"

The piece About How Her Husband Had Forbidden Her to Enter comes from the Bluebeard tales. These tales warned of a woman's curiosity. In these stories, women who did not listen to their husbands were punished because of it. This addressed the fears of women whose cultural norm was arranged marriage and attempted to educate them as obedient wives.

*edition of 6

2006, digital print from a color negative, 12" x 16"

And Turned Me into the Monster You Knew comes from the original French Beauty and The Beast. This tale spoke to women and girls facing arranged marriages. This tale encouraged the brides, and assured them that if they were patient then their monstrous husbands would turn into princes. I explored this idea in the context of modern women who can't leave destructive relationships, still thinking that if you love someone enough, they will change.

2007, digital print from a color negative, 16" x 21.5"

A new version of the Sleeping Beauty image. This new version reflects our life a few years after the original was taken, and with a focus on the awkwardness of realizing that, despite all of your education, sophistication, and independence, that you are not happy without children. 

2007, digital print from a color negative, 24.5" x 18"

Proudly to the Vast Ballroom is the Cinderella image. Any emotion in this tale is overshadowed by issues of class. I am also exploring the gender issues which require our heroine to wait for a life change as opposed to creating one. There are hundreds of Cinderella tales which reach across language, culture and geography. Every woman in the world knows a version of this story.

2007, digital print from a color negative, 34" x 46"

My husband and I sometimes reflect on the nomadic nature of our society, and who we would be if we had decided to live out our lives in the Southern towns where we were born. Not so long ago, we lived and died where our parents lived and died, and our children followed. Now, we choose where we want to be and know that children leave the nest for far away places. But our hearts are always tied to the places we left, even when we're glad we did.

2006, digital print from a color negative, 12" x 15.75"

She Trod on Sharp Knives is based on Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid, which tells the story of a woman who gives up her home, family, and life for a man she loves, but does not know. She sneaks away at night to soak her burning feet in the ocean; I equated this character with a woman today who puts aside her hopes and welfare for a love which is not returned, only to sneak away to find what little pleasure she can.

2007, digital print from a color negative, 18.75" x 14.25"

The power of a woman's hair is a myth that we carry so intensely still to this day, and I am often baffled by it. What magic, what Samson-like strength, do we think a woman's long hair embodies, and is a woman less of a woman without it? Is she, like Rapunzel, a wild thing to be banished without that long hair, and how often is that long hair is a stand in for girlish innocence? This piece was created after I went to my husband's barber and asked her to cut my long hair off and she refused, saying she just couldn't.

2008, digital print from a color negative, 24" x 17"

I grew up in a house where the men cooked, and married a man that cooks as well. When I eventually learned to function in the kitchen, my mother told me that she had taught me better than that. Is what stares back at us from inside the oven a wicked witch, our own mother's expectations, or our notions of failed domesticity? How can you nurture if you can't even cook? 

2008, digital print from a color negative, 29" x 26"

We all change, and many of us fear it. When I got married I was so determined to not change, to not lose my name, or my friends, or my temperament, and swore the same to anyone that would listen. I eventually realized that my marriage had changed me, and that I was a better person because of it.

2008, digital print from a color negative, 14.75" x 18"

In The Little Mermaid, the heroine throws a knife into the ocean after deciding to not kill the prince and his new bride, thereby sacrificing herself. How much of ourselves do we throw overboard for what seems right at the time?

2006

2006, digital print from a color negative

But They Were Not Happy is taken from a child's storybook version of Sleeping Beauty. This is the back story of the king and queen, who needed nothing more than a child to fulfill them. I consider the modern woman who is still convinced that her worth is wrapped up in her ability to reproduce, and the consequences she will face if she proves unable to do so.