Brides

Don't get me wrong, I love weddings, but...

I have, since my early twenties, been fascinated by the "Bride Culture" that has been growing in North America in the last 30 years or so.  The amazing lengths that women go to for the strange cultural ritual that A WEDDING has become is nothing short of staggering.  A good party is a good party, and I have no problem with that, but the marketing in Bridal magazines convinces women that opulence and obscure etiquette are required and expected, in the name of tradition, while they are just trying to sell you more crap.  (ps, most of these "traditions" were conceived during my lifetime.  Even engagement rings only go back about 60 years)

I often use women's magazines as resource material for my girly universe aesthetic, but I have realized that Bridal magazines and Bride culture are a universe of their own.  These little works are a study of the values of the Bride universe, a Pantheon of Goddesses, to represent the hyper-femininity, virginity, fertility, youth, fragility and helplessness (rescue me, my prince!) that is depicted and fetishized in Bridal magazines.

That, and I like to paint pretty dresses.

More Brides to come!