Kathy halper's Gallery

My series of embroidered drawings explore teenagers in their private world. The world now available to all online. 

The images in this series began as Facebook photos of teens engaged in typical yet sometimes disturbing explorations of sex, alcohol, drugs and celebration. I then randomly paired them with comments found on various networking sites. Originally I was painting these images but once I began embroidering, a passion from my own adolescence, I felt the parental hand of concern and caring much more present. I chose a more traditional structure to acknowledge needlework platitudes such as “Bless This House” from the past while incorporating the iconic “thumbs up” and comment box from today’s Facebook page.

It is this duality of the past and present, innocence and loss of innocence, privacy and the demise of privacy that fascinates me and drives me to continue exploring this subject.