Medium: Mixed Media on Canvas
Size: 48″ x 48″
With hands raised, the subject has moved out of the ring. The ring is dripping, suggesting that blood is the elemental substance behind her.
What compelled her to raise her hands? Is it a gesture of surrender? If she is surrendering, to whom or to what is she surrendering? Perhaps her raised hands indicate a desire to stop fighting, to stop engaging in a battle with blood. Her act of non-engagement disempowers the forces behind her. And so, what appears initially to be capitulation is really active defiance, a refusal to fuel the fire. She has moved out of the bloody circle, a circle that perpetuates the cycle of pain and abuse. And, though it’s behind her, the trauma is evident in the expression of her eyes. She is now on the path of healing, but the path is long indeed.
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