Bowls

I’ve been drawing and painting versions of the bowl for more than two dozen years. The first bowls were metaphors for the body and receptacles for memory and emotion. They had titles like Absence, Shame, and Torn and Confused. I’d toss whatever emotion I was feeling that day into the bowl as I painted. (Only the negative ones, of course; the good thoughts I held safe to my chest.)

Now, though the bowls are more about painting and moving the materials around, the connection to the body remains meaningful.

Why the bowl? The bowl is iconic. Empty or full or cradled in the arms, it is a potent image ripe with symbolism and meaning. No surprise then that it has often been linked to magic and ritual and associated with the feminine. The bowl is receptive and holding, womb-like. It speaks to inside/outside; containment.

The 2006 series Bowl, Cradle, Arc, Vessel investigated the arc of life from birth to death – “we begin in dream as innocents, but often end in nightmare”.