This new collection of drawings, ‘Horsing Around’, is a spin-off from my series ‘The Princess and the Frog Skins’. It features portraits or selfies of young women and their horses. They goof around pulling faces, doubling as duos with catchy names that resonate with comic couples from animated slapstick capers.* Visual puns and wordplay are an important part of my artistic vocabulary, incorporated to entertain and engage, taking the audience along for the ride. My women also acknowledge their audience directly, breaking the fourth wall with cheeky verve, mugging at the viewer, or camera, in symbiosis with their equine companions. They are mischievous and animalistic, just as the horses are anthropomorphic, their resemblance suggesting an obsession close to a love affair. These are teenage girls with their fantasy fillies from girls’ magazines and romance fiction, turned into dangerous women.
They act out a fairytale with unbridled fun and tongue-in-cheek satire: the perfect portrait with her fantasy horse, every girl’s dream. A common fairytale trope is utilised as a comic sidekick, both a clown and partner in crime, steering the partnership from sugary romance to a feminist form of high jinks and fairytale satire.
*(troublesome twos like ‘Dastardly and Muttley’ from Hanna-Barbera or ‘Itchy and Scratchy’ from ‘The Simpsons’).
ALL DRAWINGS COLOURED PENCIL AND RAW PIGMENT ON PAPER, 38x54cm 2026>
ALL BLACK AND WHITE DRAWINGS, PENCIL AND CHALK ON PAPER WITH ASH FRAME, 49x36cm 2026>
