Sometimes a princess has to do what a princess has to do.  Like kiss a frog, get a horrible night’s sleep with a pea stuffed under the mattress or maybe just open her eyes and wake up.  Seattle artist Deborah Scott has created an intriguing new series, Waiting For Prince Charming, which explores how traditional fairy tale themes would be translated in our modern world.

For instance, how would Snow White’s modis operandi of relying on her beauty and reputation as “the fairest in the land” work to secure her prince in today’s world?  Mass media advertising, of course.  Scott depicts her, perhaps this most vapid of the fairy tale princesses, as a purely passive participant in her own fairy tale.  Her happy ending isn’t a result of anything she does or who she is, but merely because of her famous looks.  Sound familiar?

And then there’s the chick from The Princess & The Frog.  How many women have been deceived into thinking that warty, nasty toad would one day magically turn into a prince?  He may seem debonair and sophisticated, but he is a frog all the same.  And once we realize how duped we were.. we are horrified at our own stupidity.

In A Social Climber’s Romance, we see a well rested young woman and a pea peeking out from under the mattresses– she obviously hasn’t passed the real princess test, but is oblivious to the meaning of her sweet slumber.  In this series, Deborah continues to hone her classical, figure-focused narrative style, which works tremendously well to carry out the themes in each work.

Waiting For Prince Charming opens at All City Coffee in Seattle September 10th and will be on exhibit there until November 5th.  If you’re in the Seattle area, please check it out!  Better still, there will be an artist’s reception on October 21st, Deborah is a delight in person and meeting her will give you such deeper appreciation for her work.

In the meantime, stop by Deborah’s website to see more of her work and check out her introduction on Artsy Forager here.

Featured image is Princess And The Pea.  All images are courtesy of Deborah Scott.

Special thanks to Deborah for giving me a studio tour and a sneak peek at this new work when George & I were in Seattle last week!  Look for features on some of her talented studio mates on the blog soon!