I seem to be drawn to powerful women with tragic lives, struggling with mental health, self image and substance abuse.  It highlights the dichotomy between the propped up public persona and the private realities of personal pain. 

Judy Garland holds a special place for me.  Aside from being the immortalized Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, it is her voice that resonates so deeply.  What a voice, what a talent, and what a tragedy. 

I show Garland at 3 ages: playing Dorothy as a child; as A Star Is Born her 30s; and then in her later 40s, addicted to alcohol, eyes glazed over with her thick veneer of makeup cracking.    Her hair is made from 8mm film and the shirt she is wearing for her screen test of A Star is Born is sculpted from the sheet music of Somewhere Over the Rainbow.  The background is collaged with old newspaper articles, concert tickets and headlines.

Judy Garland came from a showbiz family, and was already performing at the age of 4. At 13 a young Judy would commit to a contract with MGM, one of the world’s biggest film studios. According to Hollywood legend, studio boss Louis B. Mayer signed her on the spot without a screen test. These early MGM days saw the beginning of Garland’s lifelong struggles with addiction, body image and mental health, largely fuelled by the studio’s determination to mold her into a profitable box-office star. 

Her career spanned more than four decades, including her breakthrough role as Dorothy in 1939’s The Wizard of Oz. A child star with MGM, her success largely robbed her of a childhood.  While she may have been the first public victim of stardom, she was certainly not the last.