THE STORIES BEHIND THE ARTWORK
THE STORIES BEHIND THE ARTWORK
Wendy spent 30 years not painting while progressing her insurance career. During those 30 years, her subconscious was storing everything related to art in a ‘room’ inside her head.
Unaware of the existence of the room, Wendy was shocked to access it and find fully formed ideas and a developed style.
In this series, Wendy explores the experience of accessing the ‘art room’ in her head and finding a part of herself that was long dormant. This room looks like an old fashioned wooden brown box from the outside.
Taking up Space, December 2024, Acrylic on deep edge canvas, 25x25cm / 10x10”
Taking Up Space is about radical self love, rediscovering my authentic self and raising the visibility of older women, particularly in the context of women’s health and menopause. The self-portrait features the artist in an oversized, bright orange coat that demands attention. This is a defiant response to societal expectations that older women fade quietly into the background.
For the artist, wearing the coat on the London Underground feels like an act of protest against the silence surrounding women’s health issues, especially menopause. The artist and many of her friends have struggled for years to get the menopause care they deserve. The piece celebrates the power of standing out and reclaiming space, turning an everyday garment into a symbol of confidence and defiance.
The coat amplifies the presence of a small, middle-aged woman, saying, “I’m here, and I won’t be ignored.” This artwork speaks to the struggles women face in being heard and taken seriously about their health. The artist is calling for advocacy, understanding, and systemic change in women’s health. It’s a celebration of visibility, resilience, and empowerment.
Inside my Head December 2024, Acrylic on deep edge canvas, 25x25cm / 10x10”
With Inside my Head, Wendy is exploring how the ‘art room’ in her head looks to her. This ‘room’ in Wendy’s subconscious stored and developed everything related to art for 30 years.
The pink and white background represents Wendy’s brain. Red and green abstract palette strokes look like some of the artwork Wendy stored.
A palette knife outline in the top right made with Wendy’s favourite knife evokes a middle finger. Wendy is sticking this up to anyone who ever underestimated her or made a suggestion that art isn’t a suitable career.
Boundaries January 2025, Acrylic on canvas, 30x30cm / 12x12”
This artwork expresses the inside of the box/room in Wendy’s head that stored everything related to art for 30 years. A pink and red textured background represents Wendy’s brain. Colourful stripes within 3 rectangular shapes show snippets of artworks that influenced Wendy’s subconscious over time.
Thick painted lines surround each rectangular shape and the work as a whole. These represent boundaries, whether erected by the artist herself or her environment is unknown. Each boundary is drawn freehand to seem organic. Rough edges evoke the myelin sheath that surrounds nerves - these are significant to Wendy as her sister has MS which affects the workings of these sheaths.
Wendy prefers not to use tape to make straight lines. To Wendy, straight lines don’t tell a story, whereas these freehand lines could only have been painted by Wendy on that particular day. It’s interesting to see ‘mistakes’ which tell the story of how Wendy was feeling, for example as she tired from a long day of painting.
Energetic Colour January 2025, Acrylic on deep edge canvas, 25x25cm / 10x10”
Wendy’s artistic rediscovery was driven by her new found energy - gained when she optimised her HRT dose. This energy is evident in all Wendy’s artwork.
With Energetic Colour Wendy is expressing this explosion of colour coming from the ‘art room’ in her head. The gold, blue and brown square represents the ‘art room’, with the colours radiating out when Wendy accessed the room.
The 3 blue swooshes on the bottom left express Wendy’s artistic influences entering the art room. Van Gogh is a significant influence and the colours here are reminiscent of his work.
Conversion January 2025, Acrylic on deep edge canvas, 25x25cm / 10x10”
Conversion expresses how Wendy translated influences from a male dominated world into an explosion of colour coming from the ‘art room’ in her head.
The rectangles on the left represent a masculine desire to compartmentalise. They also represent the multitude of male media that Wendy consumed over a lifetime of existing in a patriarchal society. In recent years, as female produced media has become more prominent, Wendy realised how influenced she’d been by male perspective.
