Watercolor from the series Black Corfu.
I started this series in the summer of 2019 after having had a long break from painting. I had taken a step back to find new paths and turned instead to writing as a creative outlet. It turned out to be a good choice. Words kept pouring out of me and as I wrote new images came forward.
The title Black Corfu comes from a short story by author Karen Russell, that inspired me at the time. It's a rather intense sort of horror tale of the deep dark forrest on the island of Corfu. Having grown up just on the edge of a forrest it moved me deeply. How you enter another world as you step from an open field into a deep dark forrest. Everything changes. The light, the sounds, your vision. I always felt immensely protected and vulnerable at the same time. And maybe this had something to do with the journey I was on.
I intuitively start each painting with one color, one shape. And then I have to let it sit until it speaks to me, until it tells me where it wants to go next. And that becomes the process. Back and forth adding new shapes and colors. Balancing, disrupting and finding ways forward. Each shape sort of represent a story, a memory and they either rest on each other or fit into each other bind by tiny strips of gold or black. The strips are what binds everything together. To me they represent love. Love as the only power to heal. Yourself, others and the world as a whole.
Large
Size ( framed ) 165X115cm