Lamashtu (2021) is a modern interpretation of the ancient Mesopotamian demoness, with her appearance drawn directly from early depictions of Lamashtu in Mesopotamian art. Feared for preying upon pregnant women, mothers, and newborn children, she embodied ancient anxieties surrounding motherhood, childbirth, and female power.

In this painting, Lamashtu is reimagined through the modern struggle for a woman’s autonomy over her own body. The hands of men reach into her, grasping and consuming her body as forces attempting to possess, control, and define it. Yet she remains powerful at the center of the image—confrontational, grotesque, sexual, and unapologetically female.

The work draws a provocative connection between ancient fears of female power and contemporary conflicts over reproductive choice, asking who ultimately has the authority to control a woman’s body: society, men, religion, or the woman herself.