Artist's Statement

Kyra Kennedy

I am interested in the idealized and unrealistic expectations of beauty that are placed on a woman by her society and by her peers, and most importantly by the self. In womanhood, we weave our public faces by strands of these expectations, but what I am interested in finding is when those strands snap, when the proposed image collapses. As we attempt to achieve the physical perfection that our super ego creates for us, there is a failure that must be accepted or even welcomed. For there is no logical way to believe fully in the fantasies that we create for ourselves, and I like to focus on the moment that my subjects realize that. In fact, the most beautiful moment to me is when my subject realizes that she is wearing a ballgown in the kitchen. It's the magic within the cracks of the facade.