Heal - Drawing

Graphite and Charcoal on Paper
6 x 8 inches (unframed)
Has white border around edge

A figure lays nude on the ground. A clowder of cats surrounds the woman as they lick different parts of her body. An overcast sky reveals a rainbow, and a beam of bright light shines on the figure. Is the figure sleeping? Is she dead?

The act of licking has multiple purposes; licking in the form of affection, licking in cleansing, and licking in the form of healing. Self-healing encourages us to take care of ourselves. It asks us to pause and listen to our bodies, our minds, and our emotions. Healing ourselves requires us to take the necessary actions to make adjustments to regenerate areas that need attention to continue living our brightest selves.

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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/

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