I licked it, so it's mine
Adriana Maar
Year: 2025
Method: Painting
Medium: Acrylic on canvas
Dimensions: 15.8 x 11.8 in / 40 x 30 cm
Weight 1.6 lb / 0.7 kg
Exhibitions: ArtFest Querétaro 2025
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- Original piece
- Certificate of authenticity included
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- Frame not included
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More about the artwork
I licked it, so it’s mine is a work in which I explore the idea of possession through humor, playfulness, and irony. I was interested in starting from a childish logic—one that feels familiar, almost absurd—where touching, tasting, or marking something instantly transforms it into something “ours.” That simple gesture opens a much larger conversation about how ownership is claimed, justified, and internalized.
The phrase operates as both a joke and a declaration. It carries the lightness of something said without thinking, yet it reveals a deeply rooted impulse: the desire to claim, to secure, to draw a boundary around what we want. What begins as an innocent rule learned in childhood quietly mirrors adult behaviors surrounding territory, desire, and control.
There is an intentional tension between the sweetness of the image and the assertiveness of the statement. The lollipop evokes pleasure, indulgence, and nostalgia, while the words suggest dominance and finality. That contrast allows the work to hover between charm and discomfort, inviting viewers to smile before realizing what is actually being asserted.
I am drawn to the way this phrase exposes how easily possession can be reduced to a performative act. Saying something belongs to us can feel enough, regardless of consent, context, or consequence. The work gently questions how often ownership is declared rather than earned, assumed rather than negotiated.
At the same time, the piece acknowledges the pleasure embedded in claiming desire. There is something unapologetic in the gesture—impulsive, selfish, and honest. It reflects a moment where wanting overrides restraint, where desire speaks faster than reason.
Through this playful language, I wanted to create space for ambiguity. Is the act affectionate or territorial? Is it humorous or unsettling? The answer shifts depending on who is looking and what experiences they bring with them. The work does not resolve that tension—it holds it.
I licked it, so it’s mine is about the thin line between play and power. It captures that fleeting instant when something sweet becomes a statement, and when a childish rule reveals the complexity of how we claim what we want and call it ours.
Sometimes possession starts with a playful gesture and turns into a statement of power. This piece asks where desire ends and ownership begins, and why saying ‘it’s mine’ feels so necessary.”
Adriana Maar