Sympatheia (2020-2023)
36"x48"
Oil on canvas
First painted in March 2020, this self portrait served as both an outlet and company for the artist as she painted down her calmness and anxieties while sheltering at home alone. Self portraiture has long been artists' way of introspection, and it was of particular importance for female artists since the Renaissance, which removed themselves from the typical objectification of the female form as depicted by male artists.
In the depicted fantasy land filled with creatures both real and imaginary, the artist is reading, as she appreciated segregation as an opportunity to be self-reflective. Various symbols were woven into the colorful imagery to reveal the dreamy and tranquil in the quotidian. Extending beyond all four borders of the composition are intricate petals, stems, foliage and flora. In the book she held, a page is filled with pomegranates, a repeating motif in her work, making reference to fertility symbolism in medieval art. Representation of blooms and reproductive organs of the plants suggested both exploration of and reconciliation with modern femininity and feminism. Marine lives also roam the frame untethered from the rules of the physical world, channeling the artist's fears and anxieties during this time of unprecedented uncertainties. The artist modeled herself in a green dress, yet painted a red dress in the final work. The work went through multiple phases of modification overtime and was finalized three years after first being painted, recording the evolution and reinvention of the artist’s practice, marking the start and the end of the pandemic in her own time.