Page 449 - Under the Cover of Darkness

4 June 2016 —
MEANING OF THIS PAINTING?
The buyer of this painting contacted
me recently to ask if there was any
particular meaning or inspiration
behind this piece so I decided to share
my explanation on Facebook for
anyone interested. Of course, if you
as the viewer of the image have a
totally different interpretation that is also absolutely valid
but this is MY inspiration for creating this piece...
"Shortly before I created this piece I was noticing a lot of
depictions of women and female characters in the media
as being very "strong" or "powerful" - such as female
super-heroes, strong female leads in fantasy Movies &
TV shows etc. This was generally being toted as being a
positive thing. The general attitude seemed to be that we
should celebrate the fact that females are being depicted
as strong and powerful, BUT, I also noticed that in every
case I could find, the strength and power of these
females was aggressive, often even violent and
destructive. They were being depicted as strong or
powerful but only in as much as that they were involved
in battles or killing, or shown as wicked or evil characters.
Something about this didn’t feel right to me so I
challenged myself to come up with a way of depicting
females as strong and powerful but without showing
them in a violent, aggressive or destructive way. This got
me thinking about how women are extremely powerful
and strong but in ways which are positive, creative and
productive. The female is a life giving force. Able to
become pregnant, give birth, nourish and nurture a baby -