This is the second in my Serial Cycle series. I feel this is fairly self-explanatory. The creature is ungainly, the uncomfortableness of coming to terms with a massive problem. I think the ugly duckling myth is working here too. It’s all about the pain of breaking free from the cage, but which can also be the rebirth like a phoenix from an egg.
Coming Out (2009)
(78cm x 56cm; felt tips, pilot pens, gold & silver pens plus, oil pastels and Indian inks on watercolour paper. 2009)
The first picture in my Serial Cycle series.
The title of this piece come from the Gothic masterpiece ‘Melmoth The Wanderer’ by Charles Maturin. It is a novel about the darkness’s of the human soul.
The moth is a ‘Death’s Head’ moth. I was inspired by the profound symbolism in the film ‘Silence of The Lambs’ to depict this particular moth. The butterfly/moth symbolically can mean transformation, as well as the soul. I chose a moth rather than a butterfly as a moth is generally a creature of the night. Most domestic sexual abuse happens at night.
This is quite obviously a self portrait and I would hazard a guess that anyone who has suffered abuse as a child or indeed at any age will be able to ‘read’ and identify with this image easily.
The Dali/barber’s pole crutches supporting the cage are what they appear – crutches/support and also healing. Barber’s were also akin to paramedics or first aiders in the past, amateur healers due to the scarcity of doctors – red for blood, white for the bandages.
Malmoth the Wonderer (2009)
(78cm x 56cm; felt tips, pilot pens, gold & silver pens plus, oil pastels and Indian inks on watercolour paper. 2009)