I am woman ...

Doll number 7
Here it is - the torso I started painting a couple of days ago. I painted it a lovely lilac colour, purple appears everywhere in my art, it's my favourite colour so I can't help myself, but it's also a spiritual colour - is that why is resonates with me so much? I pasted on some pink tissue paper with pva glue to give a little texture to the heart and red 'ribbon' - it also gave me a path to follow to paint the red on! I just couldn't resist drawing on some spirals in gold pen, they symbolize for me life expanding and changing, but never going in a straight line ... The pens I used for this were Giotto Decor in metal - they are lovely to use. Then I had fun using some iridescent gold acrylic to give the whole body a sexy shine! The lilac on its own seemed a bit flat. I also added some phrases that have meaning for me, on the front is "gentleness is strength" and on the back is "I am woman, hear me roar!" When I showed this to my husband he looked at me a bit strangely as if I was making it up, so I did have a moment of self-doubt although I knew I'd heard the words somewhere. Thank goodness for the net! It's the lyric from a song by Helen Reddy, not something from my imagination at all, phew... Anyway, I think the phrase is really relevant to my ongoing quest to speak my truth, which sometimes I find very hard to do because I don't want to upset anyone!

I've made plans and sketches for 5 art dolls (this is one of them) in my art journal, and the words I associated with this were: "red heart = love, enveloping the body - the red also symbolizes life blood/creative flow/menses/womanhood." It probably is more relevant to women, but I'm glad I've made it. I felt a bit doubtful after my husband's reaction to be honest, almost as if I was being a 'feminist' which for some people has bad connotations. But I'm proud to be a woman, and I want to speak my truth as a woman who knows her own mind - I think this art doll says it all!