Snow (Peace) - Drawing
Graphite and Charcoal on Paper
19 x 24 inches (unframed)
Has white border around edge
A lone figure stands knee-deep in new snow, turned toward a jagged mountain range as heavy flakes drift across the sky. The ground undulates in crisp yet soft ridges. One hand hangs at her side; the other presses at the top of her backside, the middle finger tucked into the crease. Is this gesture a provocation or a small, private anchor? Is she bracing against the cold, or letting it wash through her until the body quiets? Is this a pause before moving forward, or the decision to simply stand and breathe?
Self peace isn’t absence, it’s a presence that steadies you in the weather of the world. It’s choosing stillness long enough for the noise to settle, for thoughts to fall like snow and soften the terrain. In winter the land rests so it can bloom again; we’re allowed that cycle too. Peace is the space between stimulus and response, the warmth you make inside your own skin. You are permitted to stop. You are safe in your own hold.
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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/
