El Beso de la Mujer 

Oil on Canvas

70 x 100 cm 

2023 

As you look at this portrait, it is inevitable to associate it with a gender, as defined by society (and also as is indicated on the title). The title translates to “The Kiss of the Woman” and it refers to the book and movie by Manuel Puig “The Kiss of the Spider Woman”. 

If you are familiar with the book or movie,  you will know that it is the story of a gay man who is in jail and who gets to know his cellmate and develop a complex relationship with him.  

 As I worked on this painting from a reference photo, of this young human, I reflected on our definition of gender and what it entails.  

This young human has been born in a very particular period of time, where gender as we know it  is actively being challenged.  More and more parents choose to raise their children without defining their children by their physiological traits.  

Gender has so many implications, from who we can be / what we “can choose” as our profession, who we can love, how we can dress and so much more.  

As a mother, and a woman raising children villageless my vulnerability feels very palpable in every decision I make on behalf of my children, anxiety is my constant companion, something I am learning to live with and which I am also understanding  for its complexity.  

 I often consider what the “purpose” of my art making is, and it is changing with every painting, with every book I read, with every interaction I have with artists and art.  But one thing remains constant my desire to convey what is my reality: that of a woman in a villageless world, trying to make sense of my own urges and desires, and also embracing how to love and support all humans around me for their own uniqueness and beauty irrespective as to whether I understand their choices or whether I agree or not with them.  

I aimed to capture the tension in this image as I felt it, a “girl” at a turning point in her life, becoming a “woman”? Does she want to be understood within the socially construed characteristics of a gender? Is there room for understanding and love outside of the expectations that come with being considered a woman? Is she ready to face the world (both the painting and the young woman depicted here)? Only time will tell… or not.