Once Upon a Time in the Forest of I'm Not Sweet Enough...
Once Upon a Time in the Forest of I'm Not Sweet Enough...
2008, 14' x 16' x 6 '
porcelain, plaster, poly-fil, sugar, chocolate and butterscotch almond bark, homemade hard candy, homemade cotton candy
This installation was originally created while in residency at the Red Lodge Clay Center in Red Lodge, Montana, and was shown in their Loft Gallery. In 2009, I was awarded a grant by the Hartford Business Improvement District to participate in a storefront art project called The Awesomest Art Thing Ever. The work was on display at 42 1/2 Pratt Street in downtown Hartford from October 2009 through July 2010.
Artist Statement:
Once upon a time in the forest of I’m not sweet enough…
The forest is a place of beauty, solitude, reflection, and sometimes danger. In fairytales, the forest is also where you can flee, hide, lose your way, become ensnared, or stumble upon something mysterious, enchanting or perilous. It is a place where you may be sent to accomplish a task or to prove your self.
The longing for sweetness is perhaps the first incarnation of desire, and often lasts a lifetime. Sweetness is a quality especially desirous in women, certainly in the south where I grew up. This cloying sweetness, however, can easily go too far and become suffocating and artificial, just like the never-ending stacks of cookies, cakes, and candies in the supermarket aisles. I was never very good at small talk, and this kind of sugar, while lovely, makes me slightly ill.
This forest is like a stage set, or a beguiling and slightly bewildering grotto the viewer may stumble into, surprised. Here you may take a moment to reflect, pondering the narrative you are immersed in, deeply inhaling the sugary scents wafting around you, examining your desires and what is desired of you. Are you sweet enough?