Subversive wallpaper for the contemporary home: I wanted to make a piece that followed this theme that would not only shock my viewers but also myself. My aim was to take something that I had always perceived as innocent and friendly and twist it in a way that would destroy that innocence and completely deface the original nature of the image.

I decided to use a childhood memory: Winnie the Pooh; and distort my perception of this seemingly innocent icon in a perverse way. Through discussions with others and other forms of research, I discovered that the inhabitants of the Hundred Acre Wood can be diagnosed with a variety of mental and social disorders. Further analyzing – reading the original stories and watching some of the first movies – proved the chronic illnesses of these adorable childhood icons. From there I labelled each character with a disorder and drew them in their appropriate poses along with some choice props (ie: Pooh injecting himself with honey, Eeyore looking at a gun, etc.).

For the final image, my goal is for the viewer’s initial reaction to be positive – reflecting on childhood memories, seeing the characters as cute and innocent – then to shock the viewer and have them taken aback as they realize what is really happening in the images. On second thought, maybe they wouldn’t hang it in their child’s bedroom.