Insects, sewing equipment, skylines and architecture are a part of where I grew up. Scranton, PA, has a strange mish mash of industrial looking factories, especially sewing factories, Elizabethan and Victorian homes, landfills and of course, bars and churches. Painters do tend to paint what they know, and I can’t think of one who didn’t reference the area in which they grew up. I use a lot of Victorian garb because it is the ultimate example of out of control femininity. The caked on court make- up and the corsets give me a direct connection to my ancestors. It is the ultimate statement of feminism to be feminine.