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Stay Away

$1,400.00

Stay Away is an unfiltered expression of anger, grief, and awakening. Amid the visceral red and black, an egg appears as a symbol representing a new beginning, and an ouroboros (the ancient symbol of a snake eating its own tail) representing the endless cycle of death and rebirth. Together, they are reminders that even in our most shattered states, something new can emerge.

This piece is meant to honor the process of feeling our anger, especially if we were taught to fear it, and to reclaim the parts of ourselves we disowned in order to survive.

30” x 40”

Stay Away is an unfiltered expression of anger, grief, and awakening. Amid the visceral red and black, an egg appears as a symbol representing a new beginning, and an ouroboros (the ancient symbol of a snake eating its own tail) representing the endless cycle of death and rebirth. Together, they are reminders that even in our most shattered states, something new can emerge.

This piece is meant to honor the process of feeling our anger, especially if we were taught to fear it, and to reclaim the parts of ourselves we disowned in order to survive.

30” x 40”

 

Artist Note

I painted Stay Away in the aftermath of an abusive relationship, when I was finally able to let myself feel the rage that I buried for too long. The red and black came through me like a storm, alive with everything I hadn’t been allowed to say. I was listening to Phantogram’s Black Out Days on repeat, and I wrote the lyrics on the canvas for him, but also for me. A promise that I needed to do whatever was in my power to stay away for good this time, because I understood firsthand why people go back.

In the process, the egg appeared as a symbol of new life, and the ouroboros as the eternal rhythm of death and rebirth. I felt hopeful for the first time in a long time, and a sense of acceptance. Feeling my rage, as I’ve learned is the case with all feelings, came with the gift of insight.

As Clarissa Pinkola Estés writes in Women Who Run With the Wolves:

“Our rage can, for a time, become teacher... a thing not to be rid of so fast... Attention to the matter of rage begins the process of transformation.”

Materials

Original: Acrylic, marker on canvas

 

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