The Becoming Venus series explores the imagined interactions and potential cross fertilization of classical and contemporary icons of beauty from a feminint and post-feminist perspective. Current aesthetic values are parodied, by mimicking the popular and highly competitive media makeover phenomenon and by playfully pairing and literally "paring" down classical forms to conform to modern standards.

Please click here for a link to the complete series.

These mixed media pieces include collage using photocopies and fashion magazine materials, plus graphite and colored pencil drawing and encaustic (bees wax and pigment) painting.

The US fashion industry promotes and exports a culture of consumption and a standard of life threatening thinness. Anorexia continues to spread beyond caucasian girls, striking increasing numbers of boys, and African American and middle aged women as well as infecting the foreign fashion industry, likely contributing to the deaths of three Brazilian models in the last year. Doctors say the best cure is prevention and suggest "...talking to your kids about the misguided ways in which appearance is linked to success." For more information see this article.

For more resources to help with eating disorders:
The National Eating Disorders Association
The Academy for Eating Disorders