ARTIST PROFILE: Judith Cottrell

MEDIA: Gel pen, paper, panels, balloons

BEST KNOWN FOR: Quiet, compulsive, yet provocative drawings.

“They're very obsessive. They're very controlled,” Cottrell said.

The drawings don't represent specific things. They might look like a fluttering skirt or blurry scene of space. Up close, they may look more like scribbles. Her drawings can take anywhere from 80 to 200 hours to complete, and that doesn't include the building of the drawing's surface.

Cottrell said she's interested in the human psyche, the subconscious and unconscious mind and why we do and think certain things.

“I've always had this interest in theories of human motivation,” she said.

CURRENTLY: With the help of not quite 99 red balloons, Cottrell put herself on display in the form of a self-portrait performance piece. The performance for her show,

“ ... It's Time,” involved a plastic case attached to the wall and filled with red balloons. Cottrell stood in the box, combing her hair and fixing her lipstick between sips of beer. Across from her was a red circular drawing, which fuses the head of Vermer's “Girl with a Pearl Earring” with Medusa's serpentine scalp.

The red balloons might look fun and playful, but within Cottrell's piece, they're trapped in a border or sitting deflated on the gallery floor. The red is feminine, powerful and a representation of the internal self. For Cottrell, the piece is a self-portrait and a way to have a dialogue with herself.