Medusa (sold) 24" x 36" Totem Women Series.
I'm selling prints of this new painting online. All proceeds go to Standing Rock to fight the Dakota Pipeline: HERE
I'm posting a Final image of "She's got your back" for Sloan Tomlinson's Monster Art Show. This installation of many artists' inspiring works is up for your viewing enjoyment at the Mapspace in Eastworks, Easthampton. This figure I painted has found a new home, but I keep her near. She was inspired by post crossfit conversations with my sweet friend Candace. I worked for hours to see how she'd come to life, and at some point sanded it all down losing heart.
Then, not even an hour later, I ran into the ECA art coordinater, Julie Rosier and something told me to ask her about this figure. Turns out she studied it a whole bunch. Turns out she was happy in her very busy day to contact her friend Stefini to have them send me some articles of their studies. Turns out she ended up inspiring Medusa's resurrection.
This version of Medusa is also inspired by Ruby Sales: ..."we have to begin to have a conversation that incorporates a vision of love with a vision of outrage."
http://www.onbeing.org/program/ruby-sales-where-does-it-hurt/transcript/8937
This figure is a start at that vision of outrage.
Because Julie and Stefini researched this topic for a long time, I got some more information about this figure. Medusa became a "monster" when she was punished for being raped by Poseidon. Medusa means sovereign female wisdom. She symbolizes: Connection to the earth. She destroys in order to recreate balance. She purifies. She is the ultimate truth of reality, the wholeness beyond duality. She rips away our mortal illusions. Forbidden yet liberating wisdom. The untamable forces of nature.
I think Medusa is in alignment with what someone named Perdita Finn said a few days ago in her personal facebook post in reference to Trumps comments about "pussy grabbing". Finn states that pussy grabbing is "about what human beings have been doing for too long to the earth. It's why species are going extinct every day. It's why there is almost no more top soil left on the planet. It's why the oceans are dying."
A lot of us have been pussy grabbing. Taking what is not ours to take. I've felt it in the company of all genders. I have partaken in it, ignoring the issues thinking it would keep my sanity in line. It is not a single gender who's at fault here. And it's going to be ok. We all deserve redemption and love. The first part is stepping up to own our part.
It takes a tribe of warriors. You're my tribe. I hold this totem close.
#pussygrabsback