COSABELLA briefs.


Shephard is an artist herself, onstage as an actress and a burlesque performer. While it was tough for her to break into theater, her tattoos were a saving grace for her career. “They forced me to be private, to use my mind as opposed to my body, to be mysterious,” Shephard says. While preparing for the play Cowboy Mouth, she took on Method acting and became her substance-crazed character. She started smoking sugar from a crack pipe, covering her walls with pornographic images and holocaust photographs, and playing a never-ending loop of the Natural Born Killers soundtrack. As Shephard’s nightmarish transformation peaked, her roommates steered clear. “I’d die for art,” she says. “It’s some- thing to fight for. It’s a right that can easily be taken away. I hope that if you see me act that I inspire you in some way and you’ll create art.”