Monica Zeringue is a New Orleans-based artist who has a knack for combining the weird and the wonderful. Her drawings contains images of nature, mythology, and human anomalies.
The composition are simple, but strikingly detailed. Much of Zeringue's work is comprised of self -portraits which suggest a struggle to unify her different roles and define herself.
Her figures are often sensual but strange, with long, encompassing hair, facial deformities, and multiple pairs of breasts or heads.
They crouch on all fours or huddle self-consciously together, the focus of each drawing. They express the sometimes terrifying, sometimes exhilarating journey to self-discovery, according to Zeringue:
"I am tracing my struggles with identity, trying on new ones.
I am a beast, a savior, a nurturer, frightened and then frightening. The hope is that as I become braver in the making of art, I will become braver in my life."
Written by Reza Gorhesi