Eve
The image of Eve that appears in these works is appropriated from a bas-relief sculpture arching over the portal on San Petronio Cathedral in Bologna, Italy. Created by Jacopo della Quercia in 1485 these images of Genesis: the creation of man, bringing Eve from Adams rib, Eve eating of the fruit and their expulsion from Eden, are balanced with a life of hard work children and family satisfaction. Jacopo della Quercia titled it “Creation of Eve and the Dignity of woman.
In the multitude of images I have searched for Eve, his have the most positive, powerful conception of Eve as a partner in the begetting of humanity rather than the source of evil in the world. The incarnations of Eve that I want to privilege stand for all women. Through my artwork I depict her making her own way and telling her own stories.
In “Eve in the Maelstrom”, she suffers in the whirlwind of the changing dynamics of history and present-day life, in “Mending Eve” she leaps onto a well-deserved pedestal, making a plea for reconsideration of her position as the source of human struggle and in “Eve Returns to the Essence” she is making her own way back to the essence of life – the sacred space of water.
The words embroidered onto the spiral in “Mending Eve” say:
“The mending of cloth, healing the worn fabric of daily use, repair for continued use, these are the skills I learned as a child. Mom knew that repair was as essential to life as making. From her I learned to sew, I learned to add decoration through embroidery, I learned to repair. Making, decorating, mending, these are the base skills of textiles. Our conception of Eve also needs mending. Eve is our Mother. Through her desire for knowledge, Eve was chastised as a sinner. We need to mend our understanding of ourselves by mending our understanding of Eve.”