The Heroine's Journey stage 2

 
The Rising Space, acrylic, ink on paper, 2020

The Rising Space, acrylic, ink on paper, 2020

This was a particularly difficult artwork for me to create and it took me many attempts until I was satisfied. I went from hating it and dreading coming back to the drawing board, to taking the eye element and making it my logo.

I think this battle perfectly summarises this stage of The Heroine’s Journey, where women take on male characteristics in order to flourish and succeed. After I had created a distinctly feminine and vulnerable artwork for Restore, I adopted a more graphic and hard-edged approach for this piece. I wasn’t sure if I was being stylistically authentic or if the message was clear enough.

Then I re-read Maureen Murdock’s passage again and it made perfect sense to me why I was struggling at this stage. This is the point in the cycle when the heroine prepares herself for a masculine-dominant society and sheds her feminine ways. In my own life, I felt I had something to prove in job roles. I would start authentically enough but would soon adopt a more tough approach and forget my softness in order to be taken seriously and ‘get ahead’. 

An image came to mind of the heroine taking on masculine attributes and literally sharing features with her two male counterparts. I thought about what this may do to the feminine side and a single tear seemed to be the most fitting.

I think there’s something poignant about this piece, how perfectly symmetrical and balanced it is, but there is a distinct divide. It’s now come to be one of my favourite pieces and serves as a reminder that the quest to authenticity is a tricky and evolving one. We may feel more secure adopting different identities, but embracing our own is the bravest choice we can make.

A4 and A3 Giclée Fine Art prints of The Rising Space are available to buy in the shop. Please click here.

 
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