Food functions in many complex ways in the lives of women. Untold stories and sugar-coated secrets consume women from the inside out. Over-eating can be a way to fill an emotional void, creating a false feeling of fullness or temporary wholeness, or in a positive way, food can represent nurturance and love towards others. The miniature trompe l’oeil food sculptures in my work are based on memories from my mother and grandmother’s kitchen and nostalgic American cuisine. These food sculptures not only symbolize the familiar and staying in your comfort zone but also a societal or personal barrier that I hope these women choose to reject. 

Observing how the conservative Southern women in my family adhere to traditional gender roles prompted my investigation into the loss of women’s identities and individuality. After a loved one, who was a homemaker, was subjected to a tragic and mysterious case of neglect leaving her in a diabetic coma, I looked for physical, societal, and psychological evidence. Thus, the portraits that emerged in my multimedia installations are from family scrapbooks, found photographs, and a series of 1950s and 1960s Future Homemakers of America scrapbooks. The sensory organs of the “future homemakers” are suppressed as a means of expressing subjugation and sensory deprivation. The act of discovering photographic portraits of women is important to my process as it is a way of preserving those who, like my family member, came to be overlooked and discarded.