Wolves and Ghosts

Wolves and Ghosts

Excerpt from an essay I wrote about my work. I think this is the first time I’m really getting into detail publicly about the symbolism of my work.

”...The original assignment was to draw something new every day for three weeks on this piece, something inspired by your day, and to add another piece of paper each week. I interpreted the things going on around me and illustrated a piece on Patriarchy. Starting from left to right, the viewer can identify a familiar character from western folklore, little red ridding hood. Earlier this year I had done an artist book on little red ridding hood, the hunter and the wolf both being male, the devouring being sexual, and the two female characters fate resting solely on the male characters in the story. Expanding upon that, the wolves and foxes in this piece all represent male entities. The little read ridding hood is surrounded by wolves, faceless and feetless because she only exists because they do. A tree form grows out of her heart, her only form of expression. She is looking back ghostly little girls, wearing masks of foxes. They are trying to put on the face of little boys, as she pulls the mask off she is disappearing. In front of these figures are heads popping up from the ground, surrounded by phallic mushrooms, poisonous, and suffocating them before they can surface. On the next panel there is a frightening looking wolf or jackal like creature howling out to the viewer. It is up to the viewer to decide if what is coming from him is some sort of phallic organ, an umbilical cord, questioning the gender, or entrails. It leads you to a flock of rabbits, then asking the question if they came from him or if they are destroying him. The answer is in the background above, an outline of a faceless girl riding a fox. In it’s mouth is an arm, relating to castration, which is somewhat of a tribute to Audition and other Asian horror films that inspire me. In the last panel an elongated form of a woman lays on the ground conscious and bare breasted. She represents the two roles women are offered by the patriarchy, sexual object and Mother. The three foxes (sons) chase the daughter (girl) to relate back to the piece, showing how this is a cycle, and also touches upon the desire for male offspring.”