Las Encantadas


My current body of work was inspired by the legendary half-human, half-dolphin trickster figures of the Amazon River basin, Los Encantados (The Enchanted Ones). My female versions of these mythological creatures reference images of seductive women from both the high art cannon and popular culture, including Ingres’ La Grande Odalisque and Manet’s Olympia, the classic midcentury pin-up girls of Vargas and Elvgren, and models from contemporary advertising and pornography. By merging the human with the animal, and the beautiful with the bestial, I aim to articulate a feminist stance more humorous than didactic. Yet my critique is motivated by earnest questions about the relationship between sexual exhibitionism and empowerment. I ask these from the position of a woman living in a time where the spectacle of the erotic female has not only endured, but has become a ubiquitous part of public life.