For the past several years, my twin nieces have served as my inspiration and muses for a series of work entitled: “Duality”. Here, the concepts I explored included transitions and innocence. In my own way I documented their journey from girlhood to young adulthood while focusing on the female archetype. An intentional dualism emerged. At times this duality formed contradictions or situations that were paradoxical in nature.
The twins have a younger sister, Stephanie, whom I have never used in my work. At this juncture in her life and mine, I felt that she, at the age of fourteen should be included in the fold. And yet, I was uncertain of how to forge two into three and also evolve the duality concept.
I happened upon a gallery guide that I had collected while visiting Rome many years ago, and paused for several minutes at a portrait of Raphael’s “Lady with a Unicorn”. Raphael’s ‘Lady’ depicts a mysterious portrait of a young woman with a unicorn in her lap. I felt like Stephanie could be her, and, in a way, I felt that she could be me at the same time.
A good friend of mine told me that she felt the portrait was a feminine archetype of ‘Divine Mother Essence’. I mentioned to my friend that the piece had been an extreme challenge, especially considering that I had become a mother for the second time within the last ten months. This friend asked how I had been able to work on something this time intensive. I told her that in addition to working extremely hard, I had been asking for guidance, and had been using stones as meditation tools before I worked. I went on to tell her that I had been drawn to a particular rock called bloodstone, which is fabled to have been the stone that was below Christ when he died. According to legend, his blood stained the green stones with permanent drops of red. Though, I was not sure why this stone was important to the painting.
My friend and I consulted a reference book of symbols at her home,where we read that the unicorn is an emblem of the sword or the word of God. Christ is represented by this animal, and his invincible strength by its horn. Additionally, according to legend the unicorn is tireless when pursued yet falls meekly to the ground when approached by a virgin, thus the animal represents purity and virtue.
Furthermore, after researching more on symbolism, I found the answer to my dilemma concerning how the concepts in my work will unfold. The emergence of a third component to a dualism reconciles any antithesis or opposed principles into synthesis.
In the case of my appropriated portrait of Stephanie she portrays a new unity represented by the quintessential mother who holds in her hand the secret to a greater harmony in the world.
