PORTFOLIO > Ballad of the Tattooed Lady: 2011, gloves and works on paper

LYLAS is a statement that was written at the bottom of girlhood letters passed between best friends. It stands for Love you Like a Sis(ter). In this pair of gloves I am exploring mythic notions of twinning or doubling oneself as a means of artistic expression. The double headed mermaid is at once herself and her own sister. She is both of the land and of the sea. She belongs to the real and imagined world. The fetus mermaid symbolic of the artists ability to reproduce and sustain new imagery as in birth. These new feminine associations within the traditional tattoo vocabulary help expand the meaning of tattoo iconography beyond its original masculine connotations.