Lara Lark
Houston, TX
Artist's Statement:
Because I used to always watch my mother, then my grandmother, spend hours leafing through and sketching the images in women?s and fashion magazines, I focused on the magazine as an encapsulated world. This world, unlike theirs or mine, could be easily managed, easily conquered a mini-manifest destiny for the stifled housewife or bored teen.
Serial process is also a huge factor in most things targeting the domestic female. Cookbooks, sewing instructions, and even current magazines tell you how to do everything from put on your eyeliner to seduce a stranger in just a few easy steps.
For these reasons, I choose to take such images, such processes, and turn them into monumental and undeniable ink drawings. They are close to billboard scale and are slavishly, laboriously hand-stippled with a single fine-tipped marker on Tyvek, a tough but fragile-looking material that hangs loosely, thereby echoing the ephemeral nature of the page.
