Women contain multitudes.

Growing up in the South in a conservative, fundamentalist atmosphere shaped me in a myriad of ways. These days, many of my artful creations explore the dichotomy between the innocence of girlhood and the perceived scandal of true femininity. Sexuality is not cheap. In all of its consensual forms, it is divine. It’s whatever you want it to be.

“Why should women accept this picture of a half-life, rather than a share in the whole of human destiny?”, a quote from Betty Friedan, who wrote the first book on feminism that I ever turned the pages of.

Women are the origin of life, and we are the origin of our own fulfillment. I am not anti-men, I love the men that remain in my world, but I *am* pro-women.

Symbolism has always been important to me. You see it in everything I touch. My songs. My home. My art. Every element of these images is intentional.

• Blue eyeshadow, curlers, wearing heels & underwear inside to cook, long nails: examples of the beauty standards that have been placed on women since the dawn of time, but that largely came to fruition in the form of the rise of the 1950’s housewife archetype. “The Feminine Mystique” was coined by one of the premiere feminist activists in all of history, Betty Friedan. It is the assumption that women shall only be fulfilled from their housework, marriage, sexual devotion to their husband, and children. Back then, the prevailing belief was that women who were truly feminine should not want to work, get an education, or have political opinions.

• Showcasing my pansy tattoo: a call-out to how my bedroom was decorated as a young girl.

• SSRIs, alcohol, tobacco: representation of the concept of “female hysteria”, a term also used to describe the unfulfillment that women can experience. Also, tools for self-medication.

• Pearls & olives: forced purity.

• My heels: the opposite of forced purity.

• The books on health & fitness, the DSM-5, the vinyl on the floor by Marilyn Monroe—all intentional.

• & of course, I had to have my baby rescue pup, Ellie, in these.

If such images make you uncomfortable, that’s the point. Art should disturb the comfortable, and comfort the disturbed.

THIS SHOOT WAS A COLLABORATION BETWEEN AD ASTRA & AUSPEX STUDIOS.