A Crown of Snakes
What Has Been Brought From the Garden?
"What Has Been Brought From the Garden" is my latest collection of artwork. This collection of paintings is inspired by my painting and poem, "My Rage is Like a Flower Garden", that I wrote in the heat of the locked-down summer of 2020.
The focus of this collection was to explore the theme of feminine rage, creating work that was floral and feminine in color palette, but rage-filled in expression and intensity. This collection consists of large, attention-grabbing paintings that cannot be ignored because of their size.
In reflecting on my 2020 painting and poem, I wondered, "if my rage is like a flower garden, what have I harvested from it?" The paintings and accompanying writings are the answer to that question.
My painting and writing serve as an outlet for me to process my experience as a woman, mother, and trauma survivor. Part of that processing involves examining the narratives that I have both inherited and developed along the way.
I spend a considerable amount time reflecting on the role of women in the mythologies we have inherited and how in those mythologies, the suffering of humankind always seems to fall on the shoulders of women: Lilith refusing to lay under Adam, desiring to be equal to him and her resulting banishment, Eve choosing to eat the forbidden fruit and, too, being banished, Pandora opening the box and unleashing misery and evil on the world, Medusa being assaulted by Poseidon in the temple of Athena and being cursed by Athena (because how could she punish Poseidon?) to live as a gorgon turning men to stone, etc.
These are the mythologies that are at the bedrock of centuries old cultural systems - and those are just a few - but these stories lead to beliefs, beliefs about women and the danger of their desire, the threat of their curiosity, and the trouble they bring when left to their own devices.
As I mature into my rage, I find myself more and more identifying with and relating to the rage of these women - especially Medusa. Artist Mark Bradford’s 2016 piece, “Medusa”, and an excerpt from his poem, “Hephaestus”, are two pieces of work that have stuck with me for years, perfectly capturing this feeling for me:
“There stood Medusa
Mad as hell
I looked her dead in the eye
And knew her.
She hid me inside her crown
I was quiet, I was safe
Watching
Watching her turn men to stone”
-Mark Bradford
If you want to stay up to date on the progress of this collection and be part of the private viewing when it happens, you can join the Collectors Club here!