Our world is dangerous for women and nature, yet without them, it is nothing. I choose to focus on the radical strengths of women and nature.
Choosing only black, white and versions of Payne’s grey I emphasize a dark forest-view of women and trees – their intertwined, untamed sensuality – provocative and resistant. I aim that viewers question their own gaze – what part of the painting is female, what part is tree, what part is both?
My hope remains that viewers feel unsettled and yet thrilled by the wild that remains – and perhaps moved to resist efforts to constrain the wild in women and in nature.
Eileen Smith-Cavros 