The main themes I explore in my work are womanhood. My first piece “McQueen” also brings up themes of storytelling,  memory, war, independence, love, motherhood, and growing up. My second is focused on the universal experience of women and the connection between women. My inspiration for the work in this class has been my women writing class with Calina. In that class, we explored ideas of womanhood, motherhood, gender expectations and constrictions. My second piece is much more connected with this class and with these themes. In my second there are themes of allyship,  It is about the feeling of being connected to other women. In my first piece, I focus on an alone individual story and tell one woman’s life through significant moments and objects. In the second I contrast this with the idea of allyship between women. It speaks to a larger idea that you are never really alone. We have each other’s backs and see each other in ways men do not inherently understand. My third piece is about the innocence of childhood. It is a print of a little girl sleeping. It relates back to my larger theme of womanhood because she will one day go out into the world and be perceived, but not yet. We catch her at a moment in time before the world touches her. She is unaffected by any expectations. She is in her own bubble. 

The first piece “McQueen” is a series of four oil paintings that each show one object that chronologically tells a story from my grandmother’s life. I used oil paint because I knew I wanted a specific texture. I used a palette knife and layered the paint on while being mindful of direction and hoping to show movement. The reason behind this is not to create a perfectly clear picture. I wanted to express emotion, and memory through a hazy and heavy layer of paint. This piece is also very connected to my pieces last year all of which focused on growing up. I choose objects based on points of time in her, and that represents a significant event or part of her. The first is an iron table. She and her family would hide under it instead of in a bomb shelter. This object places us in time, world war 2 and shows more of her family's possible financial situation. The second gives us more insight into her personality and her relationship with those around her. It is a nurse uniform that she was given when she worked at the hospital at 16 after running away from home due to her relationship with her mother. She was a strong and independent person. The third piece of a bike represents her honeymoon with my grandfather only months before moving to the United States from Scotland. For the last piece, I wanted to show her life as a wife and mother. I asked my dad what object he associates with her. His answer was a rolling pin because she would bake fresh bread every week. All the stories within this represent either a piece of who she was or a phase in her life. They are all stories I heard only from my dad about this mom.

“Woman to Woman: not enemies, not rivals, if not friends then allies' ' is a watercolor and image transfer piece about womanhood. In women writing we read the quote “Chloe liked Olivia perhaps for the first time in literature.” from A Room Of One's Own by Virginia Woolf. We discussed the idea of how often women can be turned on each other, and forced to turn against each other. In “woman to woman” women take this back and don’t fall into the idea of being against other women. Instead, the opposite is true. The eyes show the connection women share whether through literal eye contact or through other means of being there for each other. The well-balanced but not symmetrical nature of the placements of the eyes represents the sense of community in the space they exist in. They all see each other and have their pair that sees them as well. The text in the background is of quotes relating to this theme. It is light and hard to read. It is not the main focus of the piece but rather serves as a foundation for the eyes. 

My three pieces walk you through the experience of womanhood. The first piece shown will be Oakley, then McQueen, and finally Woman to Woman. The first piece in this lineup shows you the innocence of a little girl before meeting any experiences of being a woman. She is still in her little bubble. She is unaffected. The next piece is the singular story of a woman’s life told chronologically. The final piece contrasts this idea with a sense of community of womanhood. The bond and connection we share. The final stage. 

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“McQueen” is a series of four oil paintings that each show one object that chronologically tells a story from my grandmother’s life.  The first is an iron table. She and her family would hide under it instead of in a bomb shelter. The second is a nurse uniform that she was given when she worked at the hospital at 16 after running away from home due to her relationship with her mother. The third piece of a bike represents her honeymoon with my grandfather only months before moving to the United States from Scotland. The final object is a rolling pin. She would bake bread twice a week. I chose this because it is what my dad says he associates with her when I asked him.