27/09/16
Portfolio: Heather Carol
Drawing inspiration from current social culture,
history, mythology and literature, as well as from her own experiences as a
disabled, lesbian artist, Heather Carol’s painstakingly intricate egg tempera
paintings explore her personal coming out journey through a myriad of
symbolism. For example, taking from Celtic mythology, in Journey of a May Femme (2016), the fox symbolises passion, the beech
symbolises knowledge, and the birch symbolises renewal and new beginnings. At
first glance, one sees just a woodland scene – animals, foliage and maybe a
face – but look closer and, beneath the surface, emblems begin to appear: a double-headed
axe, lambda, interlocked Venuses, the international symbol of access (or
wheelchair symbol)…
Often taking more than 100 hours to create, Carol’s
paintings employ the technique of sgrafitto
(scratching into the surface of the gesso panel) to create texture – a method
she has adopted to suit her needs. Her medical condition, Myoclonic Dystonia,
causes tremors and involuntary movements, leading to paralysis and impaired
hands. While looking at her finished work, the effort involved is blatantly apparent,
no one would guess this extra challenge that has needed to be overcome.
A poet as well as a painter, Carol allows one artistic
medium to feed into the other. In the poem to accompany the painting Carpe Diem (2016), she writes:
Have
pride,
whether
you are straight, bi, trans, femme or gay.
Carpe
diem: seize the day.
This is certainly the motto by which she now seems to
live.
Also published at DIVA online
Image:
Heather Carol
Carpe Diem
2016
egg tempera on a traditional gesso panel
52cm x 52cm
Photo: Debbie Humphry