The famous let-them-eat-cake story is deeply personal to me. The legend says that, upon being informed that her citizens didn't have any bread to eat, the French Queen Marie Antoinette exclaimed: "Well, let them eat cake!" It's difficult to tell, centuries later, whether she was being ironic and calloused, or simply ignorant of the famine people living outside of her palace walls were facing. But even today there are people who are suffering in silence and people who are ignorant or insensitive to their struggles.

These three paintings from my Let Them Eat Cake series are an attempt to expose and shed more light on the literal and metaphorical suffering, suppression and objectification of women. I know many incredible women who could really make a difference in this world if they only had a chance to be the person they were meant to be.