Shary Boyle is a young Canadian artist who dabbles in the beautifully creepy. Her work is about sex, violence, history and femininity in the most deceptively charming way. She paints and draws and has done live projection art for Peaches and Feist, but sculpture is her standout medium. The porcelain piece above is called “The Rejection of Pluto.” It's part of the Art Gallery of Ontario's permanent collection. She made it in response to the Greek myth. I can't be sure, but I believe the large head on the lake is Pluto, god of the underworld. In the myth, the lake is made up of the tears of nymphs.

Pluto, the story goes, falls in love with and kidnaps Persephone. She is doomed to spend half the year in the underworld with him, and half in the regular world.

Here are some other pieces by Boyle. Amazing, intricate stuff.

This one below is one of her more recent (2009) entitled “Lovers.”

You can buy a book about her work here.