Colleen Comer, "Lucy vs. the Seagull"
Oil on Canvas
48” x 60”
2022
I feel that, for women, there is both pleasure and vulnerability in solitary eating. For what feels like my whole life, broad opinion states that a woman eating alone, and female solitude in general, is primarily a pitiable situation.
Alone, at home, we sink into the ecstasy of a junky, salty snack and revel in the safety of soft clothes and privacy. No one is there to judge our choices or watch us chew and we don’t have to explain our lack of companionship and insist that we enjoy being by ourselves.
Now, a woman publicly eating alone is in a more exposed situation. Women’s open mouths, women eating, women chewing, and women drinking are common visual shorthand for desire and female sexuality. A woman alone must eat while keeping an eye on the scene around her. She must be wary of predators and fools who see her brazen, companionless consumption as invitation.
STATEMENT
I feel that, for women, there is both pleasure and vulnerability in solitary eating. For what feels like my whole life, broad opinion states that a woman eating alone, and female solitude in general, is primarily a pitiable situation.
Alone, at home, we sink into the ecstasy of a junky, salty snack and revel in the safety of soft clothes and privacy. No one is there to judge our choices or watch us chew and we don’t have to explain our lack of companionship and insist that we enjoy being by ourselves.
Now, a woman publicly eating alone is in a more exposed situation. Women’s open mouths, women eating, women chewing, and women drinking are common visual shorthand for desire and female sexuality. A woman alone must eat while keeping an eye on the scene around her. She must be wary of predators and fools who see her brazen, companionless consumption as invitation.
BIO
Colleen Terrell Comer lives and works in the heat and humidity of Mobile, Alabama. She grew up on the edge of an urban swamp and spent her summers barefoot and muddy. She creates paintings, sculptures and performances that explore the surreal constructs and contradictions of everyday life and womanhood- with specific influences from the coastal southern culture in which she was braised. Community and visibility are an important part of Comer’s practice and act as extensions of her visual work. She has been active throughout her career in artists collectives (Redux Contemporary Art Center in Charleston, SC and The Rumor Union in Mobile, AL) and in public art collaborations. In 2019 Comer founded a creative feminist Mardi Gras marching society, the Society of Monstrous Women, to promote fellowship and revelry.
Comer received her BFA from Auburn University in 2002 and her MFA from the School of Visual Arts in 2020.
Oil on Canvas
48” x 60”
2022
I feel that, for women, there is both pleasure and vulnerability in solitary eating. For what feels like my whole life, broad opinion states that a woman eating alone, and female solitude in general, is primarily a pitiable situation.
Alone, at home, we sink into the ecstasy of a junky, salty snack and revel in the safety of soft clothes and privacy. No one is there to judge our choices or watch us chew and we don’t have to explain our lack of companionship and insist that we enjoy being by ourselves.
Now, a woman publicly eating alone is in a more exposed situation. Women’s open mouths, women eating, women chewing, and women drinking are common visual shorthand for desire and female sexuality. A woman alone must eat while keeping an eye on the scene around her. She must be wary of predators and fools who see her brazen, companionless consumption as invitation.
STATEMENT
I feel that, for women, there is both pleasure and vulnerability in solitary eating. For what feels like my whole life, broad opinion states that a woman eating alone, and female solitude in general, is primarily a pitiable situation.
Alone, at home, we sink into the ecstasy of a junky, salty snack and revel in the safety of soft clothes and privacy. No one is there to judge our choices or watch us chew and we don’t have to explain our lack of companionship and insist that we enjoy being by ourselves.
Now, a woman publicly eating alone is in a more exposed situation. Women’s open mouths, women eating, women chewing, and women drinking are common visual shorthand for desire and female sexuality. A woman alone must eat while keeping an eye on the scene around her. She must be wary of predators and fools who see her brazen, companionless consumption as invitation.
BIO
Colleen Terrell Comer lives and works in the heat and humidity of Mobile, Alabama. She grew up on the edge of an urban swamp and spent her summers barefoot and muddy. She creates paintings, sculptures and performances that explore the surreal constructs and contradictions of everyday life and womanhood- with specific influences from the coastal southern culture in which she was braised. Community and visibility are an important part of Comer’s practice and act as extensions of her visual work. She has been active throughout her career in artists collectives (Redux Contemporary Art Center in Charleston, SC and The Rumor Union in Mobile, AL) and in public art collaborations. In 2019 Comer founded a creative feminist Mardi Gras marching society, the Society of Monstrous Women, to promote fellowship and revelry.
Comer received her BFA from Auburn University in 2002 and her MFA from the School of Visual Arts in 2020.
Oil on Canvas
48” x 60”
2022
I feel that, for women, there is both pleasure and vulnerability in solitary eating. For what feels like my whole life, broad opinion states that a woman eating alone, and female solitude in general, is primarily a pitiable situation.
Alone, at home, we sink into the ecstasy of a junky, salty snack and revel in the safety of soft clothes and privacy. No one is there to judge our choices or watch us chew and we don’t have to explain our lack of companionship and insist that we enjoy being by ourselves.
Now, a woman publicly eating alone is in a more exposed situation. Women’s open mouths, women eating, women chewing, and women drinking are common visual shorthand for desire and female sexuality. A woman alone must eat while keeping an eye on the scene around her. She must be wary of predators and fools who see her brazen, companionless consumption as invitation.
STATEMENT
I feel that, for women, there is both pleasure and vulnerability in solitary eating. For what feels like my whole life, broad opinion states that a woman eating alone, and female solitude in general, is primarily a pitiable situation.
Alone, at home, we sink into the ecstasy of a junky, salty snack and revel in the safety of soft clothes and privacy. No one is there to judge our choices or watch us chew and we don’t have to explain our lack of companionship and insist that we enjoy being by ourselves.
Now, a woman publicly eating alone is in a more exposed situation. Women’s open mouths, women eating, women chewing, and women drinking are common visual shorthand for desire and female sexuality. A woman alone must eat while keeping an eye on the scene around her. She must be wary of predators and fools who see her brazen, companionless consumption as invitation.
BIO
Colleen Terrell Comer lives and works in the heat and humidity of Mobile, Alabama. She grew up on the edge of an urban swamp and spent her summers barefoot and muddy. She creates paintings, sculptures and performances that explore the surreal constructs and contradictions of everyday life and womanhood- with specific influences from the coastal southern culture in which she was braised. Community and visibility are an important part of Comer’s practice and act as extensions of her visual work. She has been active throughout her career in artists collectives (Redux Contemporary Art Center in Charleston, SC and The Rumor Union in Mobile, AL) and in public art collaborations. In 2019 Comer founded a creative feminist Mardi Gras marching society, the Society of Monstrous Women, to promote fellowship and revelry.
Comer received her BFA from Auburn University in 2002 and her MFA from the School of Visual Arts in 2020.