This art series, delayed a year by the pandemic, began with the idea to turn a bunch of people into various things as a way to play with Fx makeup and take some interesting images of the results, but it became clear that it needed something to link the series together, and indeed I tried to figure out through the whole of quarantine what that was. I asked Venatrix to shoot, only later thinking her energy would be actually be great start to the series, and while planning the shoot, the idea finally came to me...

In horror, women don’t get to be monsters very often. Throughout history, a woman monster is probably someone who went against the approved feminine gender norms of the time, perhaps someone vilified for speaking up or for being too brazen, too sexual. More often, the woman is the victim, running clumsily from a male aggressor, tripping over her own feet in the woods, or maybe she’s the Last Girl or the Slayer defeating the beast, which is great, but you know what, I want to see women playing the monsters. I love monsters. A lot of people love monsters. I want to see women play monsters, and not just ancillary monsters attached to men like the various brides of Dracula- dangerous creatures, but who are still ultimately fuckable so as not to offend a male gaze and serve as a statement on the dangers of female sexuality and lust.  Or there's the monster bride, a woman created specifically for a man only to have 2 min of scream time and disappear.

My vision for this series is one in which we are not placating to a male gaze, we will be horrifying and disturbing and confident, strong, full of agency and rage. My creatures will be femme leaning, each confronting a trope or patriarchal idea faced by femmes in this world. Each model is chosen based on the energy they bring to the character, and each character is in turn a collaboration with that model to bring their own experience into the shoot.  This is an ongoing project with what will likely be one new creature each month for the next year or more.  All Fx makeup effects are done by me, and there is minimal retouching in post in order to showcase the beauty of practical effects.