Acceptance - Painting

Acrylic on Wood Panel
16 x 12 inches
Wired on back, ready to hang

In this painting, we can see multiple dining plates on a large table outdoors. Beyond the table, we can see an abundant landscape with flowers, trees, and a passing rain shower with a glowing rainbow. We see the hands of a female figure gluing and repairing the plates, which are many. Different images appear on these plates; a portrait, a woman at her vanity, a woman balancing herself on a tree. Small puddles and droplets from the rain shower are visible on the table surrounding the plates, and the lush landscape is brought forward in the reflection in the water.

Self-acceptance involves accepting the truth about yourself, regardless of what you like or do not like within you. It involves self-understanding and a realistic awareness of one's strengths and weaknesses. In this painting, I put and fix pieces of my life that I may perceive as having been broken. I carefully glue and put my self-portrait together. My strengths merge with my weaknesses, and I accept them just the way they are.

Just because sometimes we are not capable of seeing all the characteristics that make us who we are does not mean that they are not present at all times, waiting to be discovered. The landscape ahead of the table is partially visible, but we can see more of the landscape in the reflection in the puddles on the table. Sometimes we have to change our perspective to gain a better view of ourselves and grow towards self-acceptance.
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General Statement about my Self Care Project

My work focuses on images taken from my memories, dreams, and experiences of female intimacy. My images re-invent themes that have interested me all of my life: reality and illusion, voyeuristic impulses, our relationship with our environment, and existential dichotomies.

Dealing with a persistent virus has instigated a new direction in my work, with the central theme being Self Care. A single woman lives in isolation in each of my drawings and paintings. She inhabits wild environments and has developed a symbiotic relationship with the landscape. The female figures embody the wild woman archetype and reflect the landscape around them: arms open up like flowers, legs mirror the bends of the river, bodies twists like tree trunks. The repetition of natural elements, like leaves or waves, evokes a sense of abundant beauty and simultaneously remains on the verge of overflowing and consuming the figures.

When I create my images, I rely on nature's beauty, poetics, and sensuality as it allows me to counteract the uneasy feelings I experience concerning my existential questions. There is always a moment of tension in my images, which fluctuates between pleasure and pain, power and vulnerability, life and death. The woman in my drawings embraces these dichotomies, the possible danger, the fear, the futility. She is aware that she is a part of the seasons of life; birth, change, decay, regeneration. The female figures in these works inspire how I would like to live my life. Stripped off material possessions, social relationships, and facial recognition, these women show us the value of being human and remind us what we can learn from nature; its resilience, adaptability, and ultimately, its celebration of life.

Interview with the Dig Boston about my Self Care project
https://digboston.com/self-care-and-the-wild-woman-archetype/