Megan Cockcroft

Megan Cockcroft 
The Romanticization of 'Beauty is Pain, 2015

Paint Tool SAI

6300px by 2000px

Over the course of my life, I have always used art as an outlet for something. As a child, it was purely my imagination, but as I began to grow and experience the world, it became so much more than that. As I became more and more aware of the world around me, as I travelled to other countries and became in tune with the way my own home’s culture functioned, I noticed that underneath all the perceived beauty, there was copious amounts of ugly. Too much of it. 

My goal within my artwork it to tie these two elements together in a way where instead of one masking the other, they exist symbiotically, bringing attention to each other in a way that cannot be ignored. I use dynamic line-work, bold colors, and typically ‘beautiful’ imagery to highlight all the abhorrent things I’ve seen on this earth, the kinds of things people sweep under rugs and close the curtains on. 

I’ve had enough of ignorance. Through my concentration, Pressure, I intend to explore the often vile results of societal and interpersonal pressure. Things such as racism, violence, abuse, and disease; nobody likes to talk about such things, and as a result, it all get covered up. I juxtapose this in my work by luring avoidant viewers in with interesting, aesthetically appealing imagery, before they inspect it further and realize that everything is not as it seems.