Alastaire Lundeen didn’t imagine her “playful but creepy” 100 monsters to be put on display for thousands of students to react to.

Initially as her final project for drawing, Lundeen began painting her monsters and ended the semester with 13. Currently at the Wings Student Art Gallery, Lundeen has 100 of her monsters on display.

Each drawing in “Yokai High: Parade of One Hundred Monsters,” ties in themes of Japanese folklore, body positivity and expectantly, Monster High dolls.

“My paintings explore themes of feminism, body image, disability, and what it means to be different in a society that doesn’t accept differences,” said Lundeen. “I want people to realize that it’s okay to be who you are. This is theme of Monster High too. You should be as weird as possible and not care what other people think.”

The idea of parading monsters is where the Japanese influence appears.

“The legend goes that every year, 100 monsters parade across Japan, and if you look at the procession, you die,” explained Lundeen. “After watching a video about artist Kara Walker, I thought about having an exhibit where I’d make paper cutout people, but they would be strange, twisted creature.”

Taking influences and putting her own spin on it, Lundeen created her own parade.

“The exhibit was going to be called ‘Special World’ and be set up like a circus freak show,” said Lundeen. “It would be a commentary on what it’s like to have a disability in American society. But, since I’ve always had an obsession with Japanese culture and folklore, I thought I could send the same message by using the Yokai Parade instead.”

The gallery’s white walls are covered with simple ink drawings of various characters as created by Lundeen. The project took over her summer and stained her hands with ink. As a result, Lundeen wants onlookers to be shocked by not only her artistic take, but the subjects of this art.

“I want onlookers to see my paintings and realize there really isn’t one definition of “good art,’” said Lundeen. “My paintings are simple, but it’s the level of creativity I put into them that makes them stand out. I want to shock people a little bit with the amount of nude women in my paintings, because I want people to realize that bodies are just bodies. They’re not disgusting, their beautiful, no matter what size you are, what species you are, and if you have horns or cat ears or you’re lacking a face.”
Yokai High: Parade of One Hundred Monsters is located in the Wings Student Art Gallery, SSC 2210.