Submarine Painting

Water and the feminine have been traditionally linked in literature and art. Ophelia, rejected by Hamlet and facing the loss of her father drowns herself, her last words being focused on these men. In Kate Chopin's The Awakening, protagonist Edna Pontellier disappears into the waters of the gulf of Mexico when being left by the man she was having an extra marital affair with, and facing being stuck in a loveless subservient marriage. There are extensive depictions of women at the mercy of men opting to punish themselves for their own and other's transgressions; images of the female body floating in water in response to male treatment and for the male gaze; dis-empowered and voiceless. My works explore the serenity, peace water represents and the strength and power of female bodily autonomy, radical acceptance and joy.