Women In Art
From a young age, my love of art stemmed from the sensuality and beauty I discovered within it, a beauty unlike anything I saw around me. I would often head to the library and crouch between the aisles of books, flipping through image after image, seeking the escape I believed I could find there.
In my first few years at university, the freedom and beauty I had always enjoyed in art, came into conflict with the art’s subject matter. I realized that within the spectacle of many of the historical artworks I had treasured was a commentary on women and men, one that left me oddly stilled.
I empowered myself by stepping before the cameras lens and reconstructing historical narratives, using myself as the model, the subject. My artworks were beautiful and seductive, but they presented different narratives than those I had inherited. I declared that I knew more about “The Girl in White” or “The Girl with a Broken Pitcher,” than Picasso or Bougereau could ever observe.
The Dress Series
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My Dress Series began in 1995 and saw me travelling through Portugal, Spain, Italy, and Greece. The female character I inhabited was tinged with melancholy and angst. The spectator of these images is reminded of the precarious state of the female ideal: young, naive and pure - the very act of living threatening her status. Using a white dress, a red dress, and a floral dress as metaphors, I created still dramas against the evocative and beautiful backdrop of Southern Europe.
My Own Minotaur
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In 2000, I entered through my art the complex world of Pablo Picasso’s Minotaur prints. The “Minotaur Series” is notably different from my previous work in that the spectator is keenly aware that the female protagonist is telling the story. In these images we see through her eyes catching only glimpses of her knees, the edge of her skirt, or the wave of her hair colliding with the lens.
Dress Series Finale
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After decades exploring life as a girl, a woman, an artist and a feminist, I became a mother of two boys. Motherhood is a fierce firestorm of love and fear. I have learned a great deal. I am profoundly aware now that the feminine is in all things. It is a life force. We are all connected. The feminine, the masculine, humanity, animals, the earth. We are one.
This work was inspired by a vision of my boys burying me in the sand, something they love to do on a beach. I took them out of school on a warm September day and headed to a national park. As they played I documented the process. What happened was unplanned and organic. It felt celestial and profound.
All images were produced in camera with no major digital alterations. There are 40 images from this day alone and they conclude the prolific Dress Series that began in 1995.
Women As Allegories
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