Statement

 

I’m So Beautiful  

When I was 12 I wanted to be a veterinarian and I started wearing make-up. I thought it was the most magical product, I could make myself look so different and it had so many possibilities. Then later in life I learned that most of the major cosmetic companies tested their products on animals to make sure they were safe for people. I was horrified by the images of suffering animals. Though I never became a veterinarian, I became an animal activist in my late teens and in my early twenties I went to art school. This work entitled “I’m so beautiful” is created entirely out of old make-up. The work is about recycling, the environment, and about taking something that usually causes harm to animals and making something fun and positive out of it. These drawings show animals usually used in cosmetic testing, using the cosmetics to change their appearance the way young women do when they first discover make-up. They are playful, funny and tragic. As a society we have struggled to find a way to make cosmetics safe for everyone. We have the ability to make consumer products safe for everyone, safe for animals and the environment. So if you have make-up you aren’t using anymore, donate it to the “I’m so beautiful” Art Project and see old products become new artworks. Everything has many uses sometimes we just have to look for them in unusual places.

You Can't Win That

It was amazing. The lights were flashing, the bells were ringing and the fuzzy bundle of joy lifted into the air then dropped like a rock. I opened the trap door and it was mine! All mine! Never again would I be told I couldn't get what I wanted. After I had won what I coveted, I preserved my winnings like a trophie on my wall, even though I would never have just purchased a cheap stuffed animal in the first place.

I know something others don't and that gets me stuff. By figuring out the mechanics of the claw machine I can win every time. I only want what is in the machine because I am told there is no way to obtain it, because the game is rigged, and because it is kept behind glass out of my reach.

This recent body of work is about desire. We covet what we can't have, we want what we are told is unobtainable, we desire things we do no need and we want what others have. I want to win the claw machine because after the first time I won, someone said, "there's no way, you can win that."