Self-destruction and the desire to harm another are entwined in this painting of queens. Adapted from the “Suicide King” in the common deck of cards, I was interested in exploring the relationship between friendship and cruelty. All too frequently, the closer two women become there exists a desire to compete and exploit that can begin with a casual malice and escalate into private, professional, and/or mortal harm.

The Honey Queen pours over herself over a damaged soul in an attempt to make them whole. There are those individuals who cannot be redeemed by any act benevolence. There is something necrotic within them that can never be revived. Having a generous nature, can lead one into being trapped into an engagement that will cost them their virtue and vitality.

This is my tribute to fatalistic love. I like this idea that it is never too late. All can be redeemed in one’s last moments of life. Here we have the Whore of Babylon, a woman said to be the personification of Rome and Rome’s decadence, and the Antichrist, who is suggested to be the white rider of the riders of the apocalypse.

If they were to fall in love, would they stop the end of the world to have each other longer? Would they even notice?

Inspired by the writings of Mary Roach in “Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife.” In this book, she researched the tradition of spiritualists during the 19th century. Mediums would produce phantom forms or faces, as well as, “ectoplasm” — a supernatural substance from beyond. The manner in which these mediums would produce “ectoplasm” or other items from the spirit realm reminded me of the way that I manifest ideas from the world of dark unconscious… so it is a self-portrait: I am Madam Phantasm. In December of 2007, Harold Golen Gallery in Miami caught fire and nearly every painting was destroyed yet this one survives. It only required a light repainting over the smoke damage.

A woman’s meaning and significance alter as she goes from being a maiden to a wife. The alchemical state of being a "bride" is one that bestows social status and respectability. This process of bride transforms her status to herself, her husband, her family, and the community. If a woman moves outside of what is considered to be decent, be she maiden or wife, she will be judged.

Symbols from both "the Scarlet Letter" and the Decameron’s "Isabel and the Pot of Basil" are found in this painting to suggest the fall from grace and shame associated with the subterranean caverns of female lust. "The Bride Stripping her Bachelors Bare" is a remix of Marcel DuChamp’s, "The Bride Stripped Bare by her Bachelors, Even." His sculpture by this title was a humorous, abstract metaphor for the "Interaction of female and male desire."

This idea was born (through shrieks of my own laughter) from the vision of a woman wearing a codpiece! Being a woman in power usually earns her title of "bitch." There is no male equivalent that is so dismissing and negative. Long obsessed with the biographies of the powerful, I am interested in their story: their journey, what they do to stay, and their fall. In this painting, I have created a bejeweled and bloodthirsty queen made androgynous by her choice of adornment: an enormous, prosthetic phallus. I like the idea that this is a woman who is not afraid to wear the aggressive gear of male potency, but I also do not shy away from the original connotation from Bowie’s masterpiece of transvestite prostitutes.

Crying in a garden surrounded by her many frog suitors, this lady is not having the best time. In self-pity, she cries because “You have to kiss a lot of frogs before you find your handsome prince!” The classic fairy tale of the frog prince is re-interpreted for the woman who finds herself required to “play the field” and terrified by her prospects of finding a prince.

This painting commemorates the act of putting on the attire and the "public face" when going out to face the world. Sometimes our role as an authority figure is new to us or we feel out of place with societies expectations. No matter! We must pretend to have "it" together no matter what embarrassing thing is going on around us. No matter how we might desperately desire to remove ourselves from the adornment that entrap us, we must make the best of the situation.

Cursing is one of the few ways to express the extent of our emotions; it is a release from all the maligned ways life can disappoint us. Expletives are used to assign blame to each other, God, and ourselves. I am interested in the idea of making an icon to the profane, an act which destroys sacredness, and in using it, we ourselves are never more exalted, only reduced.

The title for this piece is taken from a story by Frank Stockton about a king and his daughter. The story is told by a balladeer, who says "I'll Tell You a Truth" about love and jealousy. The king had a unique manner for justice which was carried out by putting the suspect of his kingdom into the arena where they would find themselves faced with two doors. The king would provide the accused with his choice of fate; one door leads to a beautiful woman -if the prisoner chooses that door, he is innocent and is required to marry the woman. Behind the other door is a ravenous tiger. If the prisoner chooses that door, he is deemed guilty and the tiger will kill him. Knowing this, the daughter and a man below her status engaged in a tryst which ultimately had the ill luck to come under the notice of the king. The lover was imprisoned and his punishment was to face the two doors. Behind the first door was a maiden that the king’s daughter chose for her beauty and should her lover chose this door, this maiden would be his bride. Behind the second door, there was a tiger. When the peasant entered the arena, he looked into seats around the arena for the eyes of the princess who could tell him which door to choose. So did she tell him the answer that would let him live or did she tell him the only answer that would permit her to keep him all for herself? Featured in this painting is the Steampunk socialite and creator of "Dances of Vice" Miss. Shien Lee.

This one is my favorite from this series. The eye on the crocodile is from a painting of Christ, Our Man of Sorrow. And the eyes on Magdalene are from, Our Lady of Sorrow, belonging to Mary. I fear this crocodile has a duplicitous nature. I suspect he, at times, really wishes the crying Magdalene well and enjoys the physical contact her sorrow has allowed him. However, his tears are borrowed... he IS a crocodile and eventually one can only anticipate that he will indeed devour her. It is true that Mary Magdalene was a redeemable person only in the eyes of Jesus Christ, yet it is the idea that one must be on one’s guard in times of vulnerability. There are those that will seek to gain intimacy for their own purpose, which may turn out to have a detrimental hidden agenda.

This is a metaphor of the futile and painful aspects of existence. Each of us works to keep ourselves alive and to perhaps one day work hard enough to be out of immediate danger. We persevere through pain in order to survive. The struggle is to manifest meaning out of this toil; there appears to be something or someone higher than ourselves that demands that we participate. To deny participation is death.