Climb Inside Her Eyes

Acrylic, charcoal, pastel, and graphite on BFK Rives paper, in white frame, floated behind archival, anti-glare glass on white mat.

Part of my "Reclaiming Pink" series, which honors women's voices in the arts. All pieces were painted to songs by female jazz composers (probably the most invisible of all women artists), this piece is inspired by and titled after Jane Ira Bloom's composition of the same name. The series celebrates renewal and quiet strength, even in its delicacy, even in the midst of turmoil. Each painting conveys a tension—between death and life, inner self and the outside world, dark and light, sorrow and joy, and oh, so many other things. As time passes, and I immerse more deeply, I’m realizing I’m reclaiming pink the same way I’m reclaiming myself as a woman during a tumultuous time for all women in the US. Forget about turning away from pink. I’m celebrating and honoring it.