LadyShrine
Self Portraits through Photography & Sacred Object Arrangements
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LadyShrine I
I may yet still make Something of all This
Salvage drawer, archival self-portrait photograph, fibers, various artifacts of meaning.
Chamomile from the best/worst job the artist ever held, wedding swatch, self portrait wearing great-grandmother’s dress
With the passing of time, the butterfly mask deteriorates, revealing more of the face in the portrait
Key to Room 1314
West Virginia coal, pilfered pills, .22 shells shot by the artist
calcified oxide, wedding flowers
LadyShrine II My Mother was a Beauty Queen, so I became One too
Things I did to try to please my mother: An excerpt, memorial, motivation. I drank her favorite tea for years, even though it wasn’t my favorite. I participated in a pageant, although that is not in my nature. I learned to knit at age 12, the same age she did. I absorbed her definition of what it means to be a woman: cursed.
These symbolic mementoes are enshrined as an intentional departure from living to please my mother and an emergence into my own path.
Consequently, I believe she is displeased by this piece.
It was destroyed by Hurricane Helene in September 2024 while on display in ArtPlay Gallery.
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Salvage Drawer, portraits of the Artist and her mother in their pageant- winning regalia, 32 Red Rose tea tags consumed by the artist, rose from mother’s father’s funeral, dove of peace resting on femur bone (hardest bone to break)
Post-diluvial restoration for a feature in Weizenblatt Gallery, Winter 2025
Salvage State. Things the flood took from LadyShrine II: Rose from my mother’s father’s funeral, 17 tea tags consumed by the artist, Mother and Baby fern, Cardinal feather. Things the flood gave to LadyShrine II: Floodmud, Release.