Watercolour, pencil & pen on paper. 24.5 cmW x 36.5cmH (Framed 37.7 cmW x 47.7 cmH)
Like “Aries”, this piece was created before “Accept/Resist” had come into reality. When I started this piece I knew I wanted to explore dirtier and more confronting concepts but I wasn’t too sure what that meant. I started thinking on the idea of all my pretty artworks and how it would feel to paint women who were more upfront with their sexuality and space in the world, rather than meek and withholding. The legs spread pose and fingers wiping the lips came from that. Originally I had her on a sandstone wall (don’t know why) but it really wasn’t coming together, so I ripped her up and started again.
Around the same time I had become interested in cycles of life and death in nature. I was fascinated by images of partly decayed animals and how I felt about them. Images of animals alive are fine. Images of raw bones and skulls are also fine. The part in between life and depersonalised death is grotesque. I started painting studies of lions and other predators with the blood of their kills all over them. The reality of life and removal from idealised ‘circle of life’ imagery sparked something in me.
When the final concept of “Acceptance” came together, I still wasn’t comfortable with painting decaying animals, so I opted for the elk skeleton and played into the stylised, beautiful nod to death we all know. However, while the elk is stripped clean to bare bone, my beautiful, golden haired woman has blood smeared all over her. Blood that had been there just long enough that is appears to belong there. Is she wiping her lips in a seductive, fierce manner, or is she wiping blood away? The flowers blooming around the elk are woven and blooming around her too, how long have they been together? The two of them hover in a purgatory together which I know nothing about, all I can do when I look at this piece is accept it for what it is. Just like life, just like death.
If you are interested in giving “Acceptance” a space in your world, please contact Platform Gallery directly.
Accept/Resist 11th-28th October
Platform Gallery
194 Katoomba St, Katoomba, NSW 2780
Ph: 02 4742 0047
E: hello@platformgallery.co
W: www.platformgallery.co