Darla Teagarden

“You’re Only Given a Little Spark of Madness.you Mustn’t Lose It.” Robin Williams

- Natalia Fedoruk

Like a gothic fairy-tale, Darla Teagarden provides a haven of enchantment through her photography. Bewitching and dark, it entrances the viewer through an articulate display of highly symbolic storytelling. “My work is always a representation of real life, but not real life... almost everything I do is about shared condition. It’s an outer response to inner life - something children are rich in and something we tend to lose quite a bit of as we age. My work keeps me connected.”

Darla emerges from the cocoon in multiple, transformational rebirths; most of her works are self-portraits. She is the ever-rising phoenix tinged in dark decadence, with raw child-like whimsy elegantly portrayed within the bizarre. Her life has been enriched by a selection of memorable career paths, including work as a stylist and as a historical cabaret dancer, their influences effortlessly seeping into certain characteristics of her works. Just as the cabaret produced a “Tableau vivant” [silent, motionless people representing a scene], mirrored in her photographs, it is all a kind of Fever Dream.