Lilith's Garden
2023
“What Has Been Brought From the Garden?”
Collection
"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.
Growing up, it always seemed like there were different rules for men and women around anger and how to express it.
The rules that applied to my brothers didn’t apply for me. If they were angry, they had permission to handle their emotions with their fists (which is problematic for other reasons). If I was angry, I was sent to my room.
The messaging I received as a child seemed to be that anger was a scary emotion. Anger in men was explosive, violent, and scary, but excusable, and anger in me, a woman, was intolerable and would result in me being abandoned. As a young adult, this translated to me exiling my anger to the farthest depths of my self, denying its existence, and defaulting into people-pleasing habits to avoid abandonment.
This experience reminds me of the story of Lilith, Adam’s first wife. Lilith was said to have been created from dirt, like Adam, as an equal, and because she believed them to be equals, she refused to lay beneath him during sex and would not obey him. Adam, however, disagreed with Lilith’s beliefs, and so Lilith fled from the Garden to have her independence. Adam told God that Lilith fled the Garden and angels were sent to find her and punish her.
I think of feminine rage as the archetype of Lilith - cast out and exiled from society for speaking too loudly, for asking too much, for wanting.
But if I had to choose between the Garden of Eden and a garden with Lilith, I’d choose Lilith’s Garden.
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!