This painting is a present for my daughter Aglaé and I wanted to start with a photograph that I have of her, with a hat. Working on this painting, I quickly realised that I don’t like to work from photographs because they are so “flat” and “perfect” they inhibit my capacity to dream and go beyond their objective reality.
As we see between the the first and second images bellow, I had to violently erase most of the painting with a sponge in order to find some creative freedom and let allow the painting to breathe and acquire some life of its own.
The title comes from Dhumavati, the goddess of veils, deep sleep and… bliss.
It is said that she swallowed Shiva and he was so annoyed from being “absorbed” in her (Śūnyatā), that he managed to have her regurgitate him. To punish her, he made her into an ugly old woman.
But this goddess is also a very interesting figure because she has no consort and is well on her own: she also represents the independent woman, free. I like her. For the link to deep sleep, her role as a veil (māyā) and how she protects us from bliss until we are reading to be absorbed into her, free from the contingencies of life.
The fact that my daughter smokes and that I see her as a witch maybe also has something to do with the name, who knows.
Love you, Aglaé ????
