Despite the growth and movement in the cannabis industry so far this year, it’s still a super male dominated industry. Sadly, the amount of women executives dropped 9 percent from 2017 to 2018, but that’s just going to make their comeback exponentially more badass. Women are contributing to the cannabis industry in countless ways, but one of the most powerful is through art, design, and visibility.
Artist Caitlin Rose Sweet uses the medium of sculpting ceramics to widen our horizons of what exactly can be smoked out of, with pieces that range from sleek minimalism to full on labia, and it’s a delight. Her work is directly informed by her queer identity, and carving out space for women and queer people in the cannabis space is long overdue.
Artist Caitlin Rose Sweet
I caught up with the creator of The Pussy Pipe and many other iconic smokeware pieces so you can open your mind to a different type of consumption device—the artistic and cultural kind. In her own words, Sweet uses her work to “explore our relationship to the constructs of body, gender, sexuality, race, and class.” Her designs are on a full spectrum of fun to striking, but it’s all delightfully feminist, and radically queer.
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What brought Sweet to create such amazing cannabis art was her own relationship to the cannabis plant. “Cannabis is a part of my self care practice for dealing with chronic health issues, and I use it recreationally. Smoking helps me connect to pleasure, leisure, and creativity,” she said.
Her creations link the function of a cannabis pipe and the beauty of visual art.
I call them High Femme Goods. These pipes are intimate scaled sculptures that focus on body and sex positivity.
Says Sweet, “High Femme Goods enhances folks’ rituals of smoking and self care. I am making from a very queer perspective. High Femme Goods line includes the Pussy Pipe, Boobie Bowl, Kushy, the Hard Femme Bubbler, Feminism Gets Me High, Bootleg Marge, and many more.”
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Smoking art is not new, but it’s usually not this novel. According to Sweet, “So many creative people and makers use cannabis to access their vision and creative voice so you can see it in the work. Then there are the amazing handmade functional art objects people smoke out of. Pipe making is an ancient craft, we know so much from past civilizations based on artifacts like ceramic pipes.”
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This perspective really brings home that we should really always be mindful of how we lead our lives, joy and freedom are so important to long term happiness, and that queer women deserve the space to have this, sans patriarchy. Sweet says one day an archaeologist will know about her work towards creating this paradise, “I like to think about how future beings are going to dig up all the pussy pipes i’ve made over the last four years and be like whoa our ancestors were some freaky gay stoners.”
The serious message and serious stoner stoneware are one thing, but these pipes are also downright fun. Sweet incorporates the incredibly important queer art form of camp to make items that speak to thrilling exuberance. This work breaks down barriers, “I am often told by queer femme stoners that my work empowers them. My smoking vessels helps create space in the straight male dominated cannabis world for feminists, queers, and femmes. Getting high shifts our focus into our bodies and senses,” Sweet says, “Cannabis and art go together.”
