Reclaiming the Muse

In my staged miniature photography series, RECLAIMING THE MUSE, I examine familiar muses from past artworks, stories, and myths, setting them in contemporary scenes to reframe them from passive objects of beauty or scorn to active and powerful entities.

Working in the genre of staged photography, I create miniature scenes with characters, props and sets that I source, alter, or fabricate from scratch, to then light and photograph. In my series, RECLAIMING THE MUSE, I reframe historic artworks and stories in contemporary terms to challenge the dominant doctrine of the patriarchal binary culture through a feminist and intersectional lens.

With a deceptively playful overlay, I explore mythos, identity, gender roles, and empowerment. Patriarchy has controlled this narrative for thousands of years. When centering women, historically cast as objects of beauty or scorn, I aim to revitalize the muse with agency, furthering the issues important to me as a female artist in my contemporary Western society. I also challenge narrow views of sexuality which operate to oppress and limit the broad nature of self-expression and attraction.

Many of the old tales are fiction, and it is far past time for a retelling. I enjoy doing my part.