Yes, since I was a little girl I knew art was my calling. It’s partly having come from a family of artists and also, it’s what I excelled in when it came to academics. I would routinely go to the local art museums in the San Francisco Bay Area and draw from the masters in my sketchbooks with my grandpa and family.

My work is surreal, imaginative, visceral, grotesque, beautiful and exact in detail.

I think that’s just one person’s opinion. I have a large audience. I’m a complex character and I work in several different mediums, so I guess that can lead to some of those thoughts. I also don’t show it all and I use my platforms in a unique manner.

I love it! It’s very exciting and invigorating for me. It makes me so grateful for my fans and followers! It brings me joy to get reception from the work I put so much love into. The fruit art project for me is primal, visceral and emotional. And it’s wonderful to see others react to it so strongly.

That’s an interesting and hard question that I’m not sure I have all the answers to as art is so often hard to define and ever-evolving in society. Yet, I do find that art should have something of a purpose either in a practical manner or to make you think, like when painting and sculpture were how people documented things before photography had that purpose. Or to evoke deeper thinking, abstract or not.
Something that motivates me is considering, when it comes to the history of fine arts, the lack of representation and the valuing of women’s art. Where are the women masters! And a lot of the more known women in history knew someone or was the mistress, wife or family member of someone wealthy or of a male artist. I grew up with no women masters. This is part of what drives me, having grown up in such a sexist culture. So I think if there’s a purpose and need for your work to be applied to a deeper meaning, communicating that with art is a great way of expressing yourself.

They’re all so fun to work with. I have favourites at different times, recently it’s been the cucumbers. I really just love exploring the textures and wonders of the food medium.

What I discussed above about art history and the boys club relates to why my work is so fem-centric. I’m unapologetically feminine. I’m not afraid to paint like a woman or tattoo like a girl (I did tattoo art briefly a decade ago) or chisel like a chick or sculpt like a slut, film like a female, take femtography, etc. – you get the idea. Because women should be able to do whatever they want when it comes to creative expression and not be put down for it.

To be exact, the filming aspect of my fruit art is what was spontaneous that day. But in fact, I had been working with food and photography beforehand and during, like my pieces Prick and Cherry. Drawing is still one of my primary mediums today and I have been continuing that tradition on newer projects, as well as working in multiple digital mediums.

I overcame many of my censorship issues a long time ago. Much of social media outlets, especially Instagram, seem to know who I am now and the impact I have had on censorship and art because Instagram responded to the piece The Guardian did on me in 2016. Ever since, I have not experienced very much censorship. The copyright infringement problems are still there but I routinely do takedowns of stolen content with the DMCA, which is a great first line of defence.

Yeah, for sure. I’ve learned a lot about the nuances of copyright and imitation.

Oh, yes! You’ve got that right. I am for sure more choosy about what and how much of what I put out there until the time is right for release.

It’s a project on the virtual self and exploration of dreams and fantasy in this age of the pandemic that has taken a major toll on personal interactions and intimacy. This exhibition touches on subjects such as current affairs, censorship, fetishism and the dichotomy of good and evil. How the lack of moderation, or too much of, can lead to a warped and misrepresented reality which affects your RL experience. It’s a multimedia virtual exhibition hosted as an in-game gallery space that I hand-build showing new works, incorporating my RL artworks, photography and film with virtual sculpture and photography, AR, GIFs, and more. It’s in 3D! I can walk around and build as my avatar, Violet.
Since Second Life is a somewhat vintage software program, it’s been like sifting through a thrift store for gems to re-invent, which I love doing. I originally created Violet in 2014 but it was not until 2020 that I built my own meta-verse.

The entire project is self-referential. For instance, I have exhibited a fruit market installation where I made several references to my fruit art and textured the food with my actual works. I absolutely love going through shopping markets and discovering new fruits and finding the ones for me. And since I can no longer do that with the same freedom for now, I build my own market installation.
Another example is my photograph Cherry 2015 on the wall with Cherry 2020 as the 3D sculpture version sits in front mirroring one another. I have also made models of my current RL works like my melon head series to exhibit in digital, as well as showcasing some new Dick Dog characters such as Slug Bunny, which hangs above my fruit installation.

Most definitely both because this project comes from the perspective that most things operate on balance and duel nature, so there is room to feel both ways. Social media and virtual reality are both swirling pools for our collective consciousness. And both come along with complicated topics that affect our real life.
You project your online persona while staying true to yourself, but that can accompany curation that’s unavoidable when you post to the public. That’s what I mean by personifying your best or exaggerated self. And in comparing VR to social media, I find that there’s more alike than different, and it leads me to think that social media is somewhat of a 2D meta-verse. And that VR is just as valid of a platform to utilize like any other social media site or medium.

It’s very surreal. I work in the digital medium so often that I dream in digital sometimes, like I’m just drawing in photoshop or building in 3D. These dreams are generally less vivid than my other ones because they are repetitious.

Cherry juice, like a bloodbath of fruits!

Yes, but I’ll be announcing it on my social media. Also, one of my showings is at the Oakland Museum but it was postponed due to Covid-19, so I’ll be announcing when that’s happening again.