Artist Note: After a 2 year creative block, my intention with this piece was to lean into the fear of imperfection and get to know my tendencies as an artist. This one was really about trusting the process (as you can probably see) and I learned a lot about recovering from mistakes and embracing redirection.

Description:
We all know the part of Persephone’s story where she gets kidnapped and is held hostage in the underworld — a story of love, deceit, and darkness. This painting is not about that.
Suppose that Persephone’s encounter with the underworld was led by a curious hunger, like the stories of Rapunzel, Alice, or Ariel. In other words, maybe the underworld, in all of its raw, mortifying darkness, found Persephone exactly when she was searching for it.
This painting is inspired by an interpretation of the story where she looks her kidnapper in the eyes and daringly chooses to eat the 6 pomegranate seeds that seal both of their fates. I would explain how this relates to femininity but truthfully, if I had the words then I wouldn’t be painting about it.