Maria Lobensteijn

The people/monsters series is an analysis of destructive behaviour on macro (funeral in Beslan), meso ('drinking the 'Kool-aid') and micro level. This part deals with the latter: the Watts family murders and the effects of narcissistic personality disorder in everyday life. 

In the painting I depict Shannan Watts and her daughters Bella and CC in a rudimentary way to put the emphasis on the story about a seemingly perfect dad who brutally murdered his family in 2018. This case is particulary topical to this day and age because of the social media aspect; using Facebook live to sell her products Shannan created a moving catalogue of her life. These activities caused a lot of stress with Chris Watts, even a bigger necessity to constantly polish up his mask and prevent it from slipping off.

The titel of the painting refers to the announcement of her pregnancy by wearing a shirt with the text: 'oeps we did it again', paraphrasing the Britney Spears song that also says: 'I'm not that innocent'!. 

My interest in the narcissistic personality disorder made me especially fascinated by this case. Also: the Girls were both born on the 17th, my lucky number, and Shannan's favoriete color was purple, like mine.

The scale build from lotusflowers represents the power and wisdom we can achieve by gaining a bigger understanding of human nature. When we first learn about  narcissism, it's still necessay to check for a zip, as we learn we will be more and more able to recognize the behaviours and protect ourselves from the wolf underneath. Lotusflowers grow on mud, like shannan, Bella, CC and Niko used to grow on something evil.