kelley richardson ~ artist / photographer

Once upon a time, there was a little girl... who never felt quite connected with the other little girls in the small town where she grew up. It seemed like her friends always wanted to play with baby-dolls or Barbies, or dress up like princesses, or play house. Her friends would fight over who got to be "the mom", while this particular little girl wanted to be the dad or the brother or the horse, because those parts seemed to suit her more; those jobs always felt more powerful and free. But time went on and she learned to be like the other girls so that they would like her and she would fit in... Eventually that little girl grew up and she still tried to be how she thought she was "supposed" to be. Pretty soon she became a mom, and had kids of her own... and she wanted them to have a chance to become powerful and free... she knew that she would have to teach them something different... so she changed... and she became the woman that she had always wanted to be. Today she is a grown-up woman with three beautiful children. As role models, she prefers athletic, capable women instead of Barbies, and is intrigued by the female form and the ways we view it as a society. (And she decided to be a photographer instead of a horse.)