The three paintings in the Wallflower Muse series examine the place of the arts in bringing our ideas to a world that has too often silenced our voices. Wallflowers are shy quiet women whose flowered dresses blend into the wallpaper, disappearing them from notice. Each of my wallflowers have a flower giving them their name and a tool aiding their art. They are each beginning to emerge from their wallpaper and the masks holding them silent are beginning to crack. In the meantime they speak through their art.
'Wallflower Muse: Iris 'represents the goddess Iris who 'sees' the patterns around her. The crow egg cracks and the fledgling ideas begin to emerge. As a goddess she was the embodiment of the rainbow and messenger between the gods, goddesses AND humans. Her name can mean 'to speak,' and in this painting her tool is the scissors as well as the ribbons of the colors of the rainbow, celebrating fiber arts.
'Wallflower Muse Crowfoot' has the Crowfoot Columbine as her flower and the double-edged blade as her tool of action. Her flower has symbolic meanings that include spiritual enlightenment, courage, good fortune, and even endurance during tough times. Her double edged blade cuts through the wallpaper to see the realities beyond its limits. She celebrates activists as the crow caws out.
Finally, 'Wallflower Muse: Bleeding Heart' has the tool of a paintbrush. Her mature crow flies within with the knowledge of her experiences and she embraces the identity of the bleeding heart even as her mask begins to disintegrate and she finds her voice and speaks her emotions rather than hiding them away.
They, each in their own way, present the art-making act as a refusal to be silenced. They represent visually the expectations we have had laid on us through socialization that may direct our actions and mask our voices. The paintings reflect upon how important and powerful the urge to create and the act of creation will be in the re-creation of cultures that value us all.
- Inventory Number: 5-1998
- Collections: Available Large Original Watercolors, Paintings with Birds, Surrealist Paintings