“[Woman is] divided into two irreconcilable ‘bodies’: her ‘natural’ body and her socially valued, exchangeable body…”      

            --Luce Irigaray

Western girlhood is rife with contradiction and confusion. Be strong yet meek. Be sexual yet chaste. Be independent yet codependent. Be self-reverent yet self-sacrificial. Be active yet passive. Perhaps this can be attributed to echoes of a severely patriarchal past and our transitioning from this toward a more egalitarian society. Regardless of the cause, it fosters a cultural pathology of woman whose identity is conflicted. She is perpetually at odds with herself and seeking, or rather waiting for, the “magical other” of whom she is derived and but a reflection.

Exploration and reconciliation of these seemingly contradictory “bodies” is the focus of this work. Each piece I create is built around the lone female protagonist. I reference Western myth and story through the lens of a contemporary woman artist. The scenes, while echoing reality are more solidly tied to an emotional landscape and a world that is neither literal nor conventional. The story has morphed into that of the feminine, fumbling her way through her cultural strangleholds back toward a more essential identity and nature.

“If we don’t invent a language…it will have too few gestures to accompany our story.” Through this body of work I am creating a visual language of and for the feminine story.