I believe… that there are places in this world…
where the people are too beautiful... to even come out of their houses.

Obsession, repetition, pattern, growth: Through painting, I use these underlying themes to build a cabinet of curiosities, each figure, carrying similar features, that I could bring to life in no other way.  In repeating them, I find that a dialog of subtleties begins, each difference plays off and into the other.

Sometimes the direct sources of my subjects are as private and obscured as those in dreams.  Others play off my continued interest in the beautiful grotesque, as well as celebratory symbols, notably sugar in its dual nature as enemy/friend.  Sugar if over consumed becomes a kind of poison, yet we honor each other with sweets. The cake becomes a kind of altar, eating it a kind of communion.  The cupcake, as a smaller form of cake, becomes a portable shrine.

Freakishly beautiful, these women with their long necks, double eyes, and medusa-like headdresses coiling out of control, are women of untouchable power.  Through them I work to build tolerance for things that seem alien.  If there is a place in the world where the people really are too beautiful to come out of their houses, I think these delightful creatures will likely be there.

Ruth Ann Borum
September 2007