12 Inches

Off With Their Heads!

This is my submission for the ARTspace fundraiser, The 12 Inches of Christmas.

Yes, The 12 Inches of Christmas.

Funnier still because the artwork has to be 12 inches by 12 inches, but can only be 5 inches deep.

No comment.

The Queen is angry because both her son, the Jack, and her husband, the King, are interested in Muffy! So she says, "Off With Their Heads!" The little Jones soda cap above her head reads "Rely on your own good judgement to lead you to success."

I think of all the Queens in history who were married off for strategic power and land and wealth (represented by the coins, glued in the 'heads' position on the canvas here) , and how they had to turn a blind eye while their husbands took mistress after mistress (thinking of the whole Anne Boleyn and King Henry thing). Maybe they actually care d about their husbands. Maybe they didn't. Regardless, this work is about one Queen who got tired of the whole thing and exercised some power.

With the surgical instruments, there is reference to plastic surgery here, too, as the Queen is older than Alice and could opt for surgery in the quest for eternal youth. Maybe her husband would stay interested in her. My friend Phyllis could write something poetic here about women competing against each other for men, and the age-old quest for eternal youth, and fertility, and society's rules, and many more ideas that I think about but am never able to verbalize.

"Off With Their Heads!" is also a reference to one of my favourite stories, Alice in Wonderland. Blonde Muffy in this work looks a lot like innocent Alice, and the King, Queen, and Jack are from a deck of cards.

Someday I'll do a bigger shadowbox about Alice in Wonderland.