Trust - Painting
Acrylic on Claybord Wood Panel
14 x 11 inches
Wired on back, ready to hang
A large vase with even larger flowers takes center stage in this drawing. Different flowers reach upwards and sideways while a nude figure stands behind the vase with her arms raised and hands open. The flowers obscure her face, and a lush landscape surrounds her. A cat is suspended in mid-air above this scenario. Is the woman throwing the cat up in the air, or is she getting ready to catch it? Do we trust her? Do we trust ourselves?
Self-trust means you can rely on yourself no matter what. You are always there for you. Sometimes you have to be there to catch yourself; other times, you have to let yourself fall and trust the learning process.
---
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/
