Kiss Me Deadly (2025)

Kiss Me Deadly brings the “guilty pleasure”, in all its sheer delight, to the forefront. The painting, presented on a large, almost overwhelming 48x36 canvas, showcases a large stage complete with disco ball, a tipped over martini glass, dropping olives in its wake and 1980s and 1990s music icons Lita Ford, Tom Keifer and Grace Jones (in her role as vampire stripper Katrina in the 1986 film Vamp) presiding over the scene as deities. The piece challenges societal expectations on pleasure vs. suffering and enjoyment of art. It allows viewers to indulge in the excess of art that was created only for beauty and drama and to allow craft to glamorously lean into its “feminine pastime” persona. The piece was featured in the 2025 NYU Tisch Performance Studies Undergraduate Student Work Exhibition and is still currently on display at the Tisch School of the Arts.