Dreams Promise & the Divine

Inspired by the female archetype, from saints to voodoo spirits, to the goddesses of the Greek Pantheon Dreams, Promise and the Divine is a creative exploration into the many forms these archetypes inhabit. They offer a plethora of possibilities of what it means to be a woman. “Traditional” feminine traits, such as kindness, passivity and a desire to nurture do of course feature, as so do icy determination, power, cunning, and everything in between.

Since childhood I’ve drawn mythological female characters. These have evolved and fed directly into the themes I work on in my current painting practice, which is primarily concerned with female identity, desire and mortality. The starting point for this body of work was an interest in how female spirits and goddesses could serve a way of externalising and giving character to many women’s experiences, making them visible and thereby legitimising them.

These spirits, goddesses, and archetypes, felt very familiar despite being so far removed from contemporary life and seemed to be reflected in the many women I’m surrounded by. The culminating series was born from a playful interpretation of these ideas in which archetypal characters, goddesses and symbols were incorporated and reimagined with images of my contemporaries.

At this very pivotal point where women’s rights, equality and gender are at the forefront of global attention, this series of paintings offers a playful and contemporary take on female archetypes and invites us to question how they continue to shape our view of womanhood.  

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