Food. I love food. I also feel guilty about how much I love food. I feel "caught" if someone sees me eating a donut, or more than one cookie, or the biggest slice of cake - anything that's not a piece of fruit or a salad. So when I came across the work of artist Lee Price a few years ago, I knew I wasn't alone. It's not just her amazingly realistic paintings or the fact that she uses herself as the subject, but the truth she tells through her work and the bravery it takes to do so. Lee is shedding light on the very complicated relationship a lot of women in our culture have with food, and for me, that's what makes Lee so undeniably crush-worthy. Here are a few things Lee had to say about her work in the latest issue of Bust Magazine:
"In this society, there's so much pressure for women to be thin. We're not supposed to have appetites - not just for food, but for a lot of things. We're the givers and not the consumers, and I think some of my recent paintings are about women staring at the viewers and saying, 'I'm not going to censor my appetite."
"I always go to what's decadent and forbidden like pies and cakes and sweets. I'm not going to do a bowl of vegetable soup."
"A lot of times, I feel like people are skirting the issues, like they don't want to discuss the content. I'm surprised how few people ask me what they're about. But I'm paining them and I'm displaying them, I'm not really trying to hide anything. I'm putting something on the table, like, 'Here, look at this. Maybe you can relate to this.' "
Lee, I definitely relate - you not only have me crushing big-time on your talent, bravery, and intelligence, but you've also got me thinking about a very taboo subject, and feeling more empowered as a woman because of it. Thank you! Now I just need to scrounge up some of those twinkes!
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