"Don't Touch Us"

In old circus sideshow pictures, the subjects are posed very scientifically, without self or personality. They are stripped to nothing more than their physical selves. Their bodies are all the audience craves, and so it is given. I don't know anyone that would not at least look at one of the pictures, let alone pour over it - appreciating the shocking deformities. It is an odd, perverse curiosity, ogling the deformity of another (one that I am guilty of).

What if you were to look at the PEOPLE, not just their BODIES? What would Siamese twins be like? They can never exist as anything but a binary unit, by their very physical nature(s). For these girls, they have naturally fallen into a dominant and a submissive relationship. One twin is protective and strong, shielding the delicate and tender sister. They are so inexorably intertwined. One half always depends on the other.

I wonder if they talk to each other, or do they communicate through some kind of telepathy? I wonder if they say "I" or "We" when referring to themselves...

ps - when I was painting this, in my mind I always thought of their names as Belladonna and Oleander.