In the Light of the Moon

This artwork is part of a series focusing on women who I have found to be inspiring. 

There is a woman on the left hand side of the painting looking towards the right, so what is visible to the viewer is a side portrait of her face. She has a mohican hairstyle. If you look closely you can see individual hairs in the shaved part, but the focus is on the long, rough flowing dreadlocks that cascade down the left-hand side of the painting. Also pictured is a hawk who is clutching onto one of the dreadlocks and a deer skull filling up the right hand side with long, textured antlers reaching up towards the top. Framing these elements are two circular cyanotype prints, which feature silhouettes of seaweed, this seems to insinuate a sense of clockwise motion through the overall piece.

The woman in question is a lady called, Charlotte who I met at a heavy metal festival called, ArcTanGent . I was using this festival as an opportunity to capture photographs of people whose aesthetic matched the dark and grungey direction my work was going in. 

Charlotte looked so cool! With her hairstyle, leather battle jacket and height, she came across as very confident, almost intimidating, but when I finally got the courage to go up and talk to her, she was quite self-conscious about her appearance, which I found surprising. 

My artwork is about power and vulnerability. In particular, how we seek strength to overcome fear and anxiety. Behind this perception of power and self-assurance, there is the reality of vulnerability and self-consciousness. Where do we get our courage from? It is the way we dress, the music we listen to, our beliefs, the community we surround ourselves with. The festival has a big viking community due to one of the bands that were playing the festival and I wanted to capture that with the inclusion of the skull, but this also alludes to occult beliefs and practices, the idea that power is something you have to conjur from within yourself. The presence of the hawk links to the symbolism of animals within certain belief structures. I understood the hawk to symbolise wisdom, optimism, power and courage.

The purpose of this painting is to provoke an emotional response, to be relatable, to provide comfort through exposing the uncomfortable and ultimately to give a sense of empowerment.