Many friends and family have become deeply invested in the various new romantic-fantasy books flooding best-seller lists. These stories typically portray a heroine who partakes in many hot trysts on her way to defeating the villain. I call these books “mom porn” not only because of the sex, but because each time she is tossed into a new scenario she wins the day and everyone is thankful for her help. These tales are safe, predictable spaces with happy endings which counter the growing unpredictability and continuous chaos of our current day to day.
My work is an examination of these stories and how the comfort of a tidy ending often eludes us. Creating these darkly-humorous scenes via paint, ceramics, and cardboard installations is a way of addressing the constant anxiety experienced as the rules of order, justice, and consequences are abandoned. Each work can be read as an independent story or as part of a larger saga with each piece portraying the heroine in a different predicament. The only comfort to be found is that we find her alive and fighting her way through the next work, making her perseverance of utmost importance.
Bio
Tori Tinsley (b.1980) earned a BFA from The University of Michigan Stamps School of Art & Design, an MAAT from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and an MFA from the Georgia State University Welch School of Art & Design. Tinsley’s work has been featured in Art Papers, Oxford American,and New American Paintings, among others. She is a recipient of a Joan Mitchell Painters and Sculptors Grant, a City of Atlanta Emerging Artist Award, and an Idea Capital Grant. Currently, she is a member of the Atlanta Contemporary Studio Artist program and is represented by Laney Contemporary and Co-op Art Atlanta.