Reverence

Size: 21 x 17.5"

Details: This is an oil painting on canvas. Frame included with purchase. 

About: "I created this painting after reading about how feminine deities have been consciously, and with much effort, taken out of spiritual context in many cultures for the past 2,500 years.

In her book, At The Root of This Longing, Carol Flinders writes, “Hebrew monotheism first emerged as an attack on the cults of various fertility goddesses. With the book of Genesis, procreativity itself was ascribed to a male god, and female sexuality outside procreation was identified as sinful... [in order] for the subordination of women to seem natural, the central gender symbols of Western culture had to reflect the fundamental inequity of the male and female, and thanks to the Greeks as well as the Hebrews, they do. Aristotle’s depiction of the female as a botched version of the male caught on, and the Hebrews’ penchant for representing all women in the figure of a fallen Eve rounded out nicely, [confirming the existence of two different kinds of human beings - the male and female - different in their essence, function, and potential].”

Despite feminine deities having had a place in worship for thousands of years, seeing women through Eve and her archetype as a temptress, devious, frivolous, sensual, intellectually deficient, and the source of sin and suffering in the world has held reign.

Echoing this, Kirsten Korvette, writes in her book, ‘Witches, Sluts, and Feminists’ of cultural historian Riane Eisler who states: 'If we read the Bible as normative social literature, the absence of the Goddess is the single most important statement about the kind of social order that the men who over many centuries wrote and rewrote this religious document strove to establish and uphold.'

So with all that said, this painting was created with a new perspective present; one in which I began to see what Julian of Norwich in the 1300s saw: 'The pierced body of Christ crucified was for her a birthing body, and therefore a triumphant one.'

And this is all only one cultural context. There’s a whole world out there where female deities have been written out. It makes me dream and wonder about what it would look like if we revered and went back to a practice of honoring the sacred feminine."

Shipping: Each painting is shipped out of Meagan Jain's studio in Brooklyn, NYC. You can expect pieces in this collection to ship within 1-2 weeks of the purchase date. 

International Orders: Orders outside the US may require an additional invoice for shipping costs.