bee ♡

So, I actually took a lot of inspiration from Catholic imagery for this piece (which is wild bc I am not religious at all so I was like pretty unfamiliar with it before researching) BUT basically I was looking at Our Lady of Sorrows where Mary is depicted with the sword at her chest. Obviously, Lizzie isn’t associated with saintly imagery or anything, but I used it as a vehicle to explore her relationship to the crown and becoming queen. Lizzie’s a royal and she definitely wants to become queen, but I think through her time at Ever After High she starts to explore other elements of herself and learns to become not just like, a copy-pasted version of her mother. That’s why I have her looking away and not really caring about the crown or her knife which are representative of her duty because she’s starting to find herself in other places as well. But, at the same time becoming Queen of Hearts is still very important to her!! Also, Mary is usually depicted like really sad and in pain, but that’s just not Lizzie, Lizzie is the type to keep her feelings hidden behind her fierce expression! I felt like this piece is sort of meant to represent her growing into becoming the queen, but in a way that’s so different from her mother. It’s sort of encapsulating the energy of the royals who want to be like their parents but are also starting to question the system and starting to develop their own wants. Basically, it’s that big question of duty vs desire?