Sisterhood

In 1998 I have painted 6 portraits of women -my friends and me. At that time I went through a feminictic period in my paintings. This serie was a part of it. I had painted a lot of men nudes, men lying in the landscape and playing naked in the countryside. Than I wanted to show "us"-women not like beauties, bodies or sex objects, but the way we really are. I wanted to paint more the soul, than the surface. I used cold aureolin yelow for the monochromatic faces, just their eyes -without eylashes- to be as naked as posible- I painted redish, in a way like holes somewhere inside. All six women -sized 74/50cm facing the wiewer in a still gaze. Last year I thought about those portraits - dispatching them for some show - the ten past years has left some traces in our lifes and on our faces, each of us fighting different things, different ways. But still there are so many things in our lifes connecting us and so much we have in common. The woman status has improved - even in our country - in last decades. But still it seems much more complicated and more difficult to be a woman sometimes. I feel a strong "sisterhood" with my woman friends. I felt the urge to paint those faces again- the way I feel them now. It took more than 6 month untill I suddently knew how to do it this time. We are bluish-violet, no red eyes now. We are less beautiful, maybe less angry but stronger and wiser-at least I hope. Maybe I will still go on after next 10 years.