Original oil painting on board. Six wood panels sold as a collection ready to hang. 12 w x 9 h (each)

Painted by Skye with love xxoo.

SOLD

I painted an almost nude, emotionally raw and sensual female figure in Meditations on Francisco de Zurbaran because I wanted to paint a positive vision of the sacred power of the goddess, not unlike Francisco de Zurbaran’s martyred Christs and Saints. Meditations on Francisco de Zurbaran is a six-panel figurative oil painting inspired by the emotional drama and sacred reverence in Zurbaran’s paintings that rely on detailed anatomical development of the human figure through the use of chiaroscuro and tenebrism. In Meditations on Francisco de Zurbaran, I merge both the light and dark aspects of the feminine principles in one transcendent goddess figure. The goddess’s arms and body are bound with ropes. Her arms are stretched upwards. The torso of the body can be seen from three different angles suggesting there is more than one viewpoint—as if the viewer were walking around the painting. The composition is composed of six 9 x 12-inch wood panels stacked in order to suggest the vertical column of a cross and the human figure. Her feet are free of any binding and she wears a pair of black stilettos. Her toenails are painted red and match the red color of the ropes. The color red throughout the painting represents blood as life force energy and the transcendent aspects of altered states of consciousness. For me, the stiletto shoes and painted toenails represent female sensuality and power. The face is turned upwards towards the sky, and it is impossible to know if her expression is calm or pained. Because I believe the figure is sacred, I have the ropes tied beautifully in thoughtful Shibari knots rather than haphazardly binding her body. The background is dark red and black, suggesting an ominous mood. Her body is fit and strong enough to manage the gravitational force of weighted suspension and the intense pressure of ropes tightly pressing into her flesh. The outer strength projected by this physically fit body is a metaphor for an inner mental and emotional strength to handle the physical pain of being tied. If the body is not strong and fit, serious injury can occur.

In Meditations on Francisco de Zurbaran, the second panel from the top suggests the horizontal bar of the cross where her outstretched arms would have extended past the painted panel. Of course, the panels can be arranged any way the viewer can imagine. Changing the arrangement of the panels from left to right or up and down changes the narrative. To personally relate the emotional and physical experience I feel during my Shibari performance for this artwork, I tried to convey the wonder, awe, pain and surrender I felt through the use of anatomical detail. I wanted to express inner knowing—an intuitive process of feeling through the body—as well as the creative process of self-healing. This is why I chose the Spanish Baroque preference of painting the human body and facial expressions with convincing emotional reverence, rather than with contemplative idealism. I intentionally created the dramatic lighting in the studio during my performance to increase the luminosity of the figure. In setting up the photoshoot, I imagined how I could authentically capture the intensity of what I was feeling during my performance. For instance, I tried to convey the amount of mental and physical endurance needed to relax my mind and body while being suspended from anchor points in bindings that most people would find unimaginably painful. For me, the bindings are briefly painful, then I go into an altered state of consciousness and a feeling of bliss. I translated that experience into Meditations on Francisco de Zurbaran by observing my reference photos. They captured a few transcendent moments when my facial expression conveyed an altered state. xxoo