Natalie Baxter is a Kentucky-born soft-sculpture artist known for exploring concepts of place-identity, nostalgic americana, and gender stereotypes. Baxter received an MFA from the University of Kentucky in 2012 and a BA in Fine Art from the University of the South in Sewanee, TN in 2007. Her work has been exhibited in galleries and museums internationally with recent solo exhibitions at The Elijah Wheat Showroom (Brooklyn, NY), Next to Nothing Gallery (New York, NY), Cunsthaus (Tampa, FL), and Institute 193 (Lexington, KY).
Natalie Baxter's work can be seen on her website here
This creator provides examples of the following tropes:
- Eagleland: Mixed Flavor. While her work is bright and colorful — its very nature as soft-sculpture making it all inherently harmless symbolically speaking — all of it was designed to criticize traditional American norms.
- "Warm Guns" makes a mockery of America's infamous gun-culture.
- The "Squad" series being rather goofy interpretations of the Bald Eagle.
- "Money Quilts" on the double-standard boys and girls from affluent families are expected to live, men expected to take on the family business while women are not supposed to worry about such things and focus on their passions.
- "Alt Caps" are a critique of internet culture and its dismissal of suffragettes and civil activists.
- "Bloated Flags" are flamboyant mockups of the American flag, done as a critique of the "opulence over substance" process of the 2016 election.
- "Warm Guns
- Everything's Better with Sparkles: The "Squad" series features busts of eagles covered in gold glitter.
- Phallic Weapon: She's most famous for her "warm guns", recreations of pistols and assault rifles made out of fabric, "bringing 'macho' objects into a traditionally feminine sphere and questioning their potency."
- Straw Feminist: Her work generally focuses on American politics and gender norms. Her "warm guns" series take traditionally masculine weapons and makes them flacid and colorful, "Bloated Flags" are guady interpretations of American symbology as a critique of the 2016 election and "Alt Caps" often quote criticisms against her and others like her as bright and colorful banners."Clearly confused about her role as a woman."— Clearly Confused II"nothing more than psyco-babble bullsheet"— Bullsheet"demoncrats just wanna be sluts"— Demoncrat
