She slid on slowly by, (2020), screen print on paper, 38 x 46cm, 2020; detail in raking light.
I have an interest in snails, in particular their self-healing abilities and hermaphroditic character.. Their secreted mucus protects their passage over rough terrain, forms their shell and is their footprint, I like that the collective noun is a walk or rout of snails. I am interested in how something soft and slimy can be changed into a tough, protective shell. In medieval manuscripts, snails were often depicted fighting and defeating armoured knights. Some scholars point to an association with a treasonous family, while others suggest the snail may represent the poor, the pest, the social climber or be seen as a symbol of female sexuality. This interpreted fear of femininity fits perfectly within my natural interests in distorted thinking, metamorphosis and body armouring.
She- shell, (2021), screen print on paper, 60 x 81cm