“Queen of Night” is inspired by society’s obsession with physical beauty and unrealistic body images, while also recognizing the pursuit of beauty can be a source of pleasure rather than shame within the women’s movement. Painted in varied layers of pink acrylic and abstracted imagery, the piece conjures up scenes of a 1960s hair salon when bouffants and wigs were popular. The piece is meant to be playful in the face of ongoing debates over concepts of beauty. “Queen of Night” refers to the black tulip, which also challenges notions of what is and is not pretty.

Acrylic and mixed media on canvas