Ways to be a Woman

My piece ‘Ways to be a Woman’, shows a representative female figure. She is drawn in swirling lines that recall contour lines on a map. Like place names, descriptive terms are incorporated into the figure – as if they are part of her very being. The figure is surrounded by flowers, symbolising the common perceptions of fertility, beauty and elegance. Look closer though and there are spiders lurking on the flowers. They represent the problematic notion of these perceptions. Of course women can be these things, but they can also be so much more – or less. To be female doesn’t necessarily mean you must be fertile, beautiful or elegant. How many more ways are there? A thousand and more! We are all so much more than the labels assigned to us.