Portrait of the Artist as a Well Trained Girl
Portrait of an Artist as a Well-Trained Girl is an evolving series that blends original photography with mixed media—pencil, paint, spray paint, varnish, found objects, collage, and naked stick figures—to explore the emotional and psychological landscape of a woman artist raised in the American Midwest. Once told she was “...well trained as a girl...,” the artist uses this phrase as a lens to examine the confusion, depression, and damaged self-worth that can result from internalizing society’s expectations of women.
The series poses difficult, introspective questions: How do we challenge the cultural conditioning of girls? Is silence something we learn or inherit? When does self-critique begin, and why does it cling to us—even when we recognize it?
What began as traditional darkroom prints has grown into large-scale, layered collages incorporating vintage magazine imagery and playful, irreverent drawings. By fusing glamour, sarcasm, and humor with emotionally resonant imagery, the work critiques the slow pace of cultural change and the enduring weight of outdated gender norms. Throughout the series, fashionable, sassy figures appear—part pin-up, part punchline—calling attention to how women are taught to see themselves as distorted, fat, or never quite enough.
At its core, Portrait of an Artist as a Well-Trained Girl is a critique and a reclamation. It examines the intersection of sexism and sexuality, the intellectual toll of cultural indoctrination, and the persistent gap between self-perception and self-worth. With biting humor, visual nostalgia, and a sense of emotional stillness, the series charts the rise and fall of the “princess queen,” the long road to finding a voice, and the radical act of confronting what we’ve been taught to believe about ourselves
