EXTRAORDINARY WOMEN PROJECT
The premise of the paintings series was to tell women's stories of inner transformation. The paintings where a result of stories, interviews and collaborations I did/received from and with women on this theme.
The concept for creating images was to use modern day stories as basis to create a sort of "new mythology". I love the language of old story telling, myths and legends. However often I find that we have lost our connection to these stories, and the context seems so far removed from our everyday world, so I wanted to almost reverse the process. The idea was to create bigger than life images and metaphors from living everyday people.
Each story and concept was worked on by me and a model/actor/dancer until we found the image.
BREATHE!
oil on wood board
SOLD
This painting was inspired by one woman's experience at a fitness retreat.
It came to me in the form of an email. She told me her experience of doing a deep breathing workshop. Before the workshop she said she was very cynical to the whole concept, (in her words, she thought it was going to be a big pile of BS). She then described what happened to her. She experienced a moment of release and started crying like she hadn’t cried in years. Her body felt like it was on fire and her hands cramped up.
After the workshop she said she experienced a newfound sense of energy and approached her life in a much more pro active way.
The painting explores the moment of release, of the transformational breath taking the shape of birds (for me a symbol of transformation).
For me this painting also explores the mind body connection; how a feeling makes itself at home in the body through repeated tension (like stress), and when the body relaxes, the feeling releases.