Her interior castle, 2020

29.5 x 21 cm

pencil, watercolour, watercolour pencil on claire fontaine paper* (acid free, PEFC)

This drawing is part of a series that started in lockdown 2020. It is inspired by St. Teresa of Avila, who’s mysterious ecstasy was represented by Bernini in his famous baroque sculpture Ecstasy of St Teresa . She wrote a spiritual book ‘Interior Castle’, unusual for a women to hold her status and be an author in 1577. This book is still referenced today.

During lockdown, I started drawing regularly. As we moved through these different spaces of

new routines

freedom

isolation

worry

I used this time to reflect on my practice and started an ongoing series of drawings. I would drop, place, arrange ribbons and draw – selecting certain shapes and forms that spoke to me of

unravelling

tying

holding

Inspired by stories of women who ‘held it together’ through adversity and how their stories continue to change in history. Using textile metaphor, materiality, a sense of movement and change – I distilled a sense of soft power, strength and change from my reading into the compositions.

The drawings initially came through thinking about influences on me as a child. I thought about the women we are are told about in Catholicism – and what there real stories might be – Mary (Jesus’s mother) Mary Magdalene and the story of St Teresa of Avila.