Ana Stapleton
acrylic on gallery wrapped canvas, 2024
30 x 24 in, unframed

As a kid growing up on the Texas Mexico border, we'd order three tacos with a side of rice and beans for lunch. It was a rude awakening when I started high school a few hours north and discovered that girls my age typically ordered one bean and cheese taco and a diet coke, no sides. This painting pays homage to the subsequent cultural struggle of trying to fit myself into the restrained (and kind of boring, honestly) mold that was an all-girls private school in a fancy hood.

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