My artistic work is an aspect of my spiritual practice. I am a Professional Astrologer, Witch and Initiate of the Western Mystery Tradition and my artworks are influenced by my fascination with these subjects. I am interested in ideas around atmosphere, ambiguity, and aura. My work explores the relationship between the seen and unseen realities, it references the divine feminine, sacred sites, traces left behind, memories, and precious artefacts. 

 

​My research reflects my discrete areas of interest; feminism, the goddess movement, and the palaeolithic Venus Figurines. I am inspired by (and indebted to) the work on prehistoric symbolism, by the archaeologist Marija Gimbutas. Also, the feminist artists' Mary Beth Edelson, Monica Sjöö, and Judy Chicago, who researched and utilized goddess mythology and imagery in their art.

 

Through my research, I have discovered that, historically, women have been frequently hidden, silenced, demonized, or forgotten. This deeply concerns me, and I believe the suppression of the Goddess religions has played a part in the disempowerment of women.

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I work with mixed media and occasionally I make a film or a sculpture. I also research and write essays that inspire my practice. I usually start by creating a drawing, painting or collage, as a foundation to build upon. Then I add layers of wax (sacred to the Greek Goddess Melissa) to create depth, ambiguity, and atmosphere. I create the encaustic medium myself, melting wax from honeybee hives, damar crystals from fir trees, and then stirring in pigments, to create muted colours. It is a slow, sensual, and fragrant alchemical process. As the transformation occurs, I remember the artists from ancient Greece and Egypt who first used this medium. I am transported, in my imagination, to that distant time and place, where women were Priestesses, and Goddess worship flourished. 

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I then apply the layers of warm wax, allowing some areas to remain translucent, like portals that reveal previous layers. I make some areas opaque, to cover and bury the past. Finally, I cut, carve, or scratch into the layers, making spontaneous marks that allude to sacred scripts and symbols. Layers are revealed, and fragments of the work below, with its sculptural textures, nuances, and intricacies. Each final piece has a dream-like quality, a blurred remembrance, rather than a precise rendering. I love how the wax has a translucent inner light, with connotations of the soul within. It conceals, reveals, shrouds, and protects. 

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