The following is a part of A Rolling Conversation on The Linda Matney site.
The piece Invitation was a response to a surrealist journal 2017 Peculiar Mormyrid 6 Call for the Nocturnal.
The concept was to show our deepest, darkest desires “when you step out under the stars.” The works were published anonymously so that we would submit work without being concerned what others would think. My response was the piece Invitation in which I portrayed sensuality and sexuality.
I began with the male figure photographed in 2016 at the Victoria and Albert Museum. I replaced the center of the shield with the opening to an old birdhouse to create a dark center. I echoed the shape of the shield with repeating pieces of a dark red flower I found at Biltmore Estate in Asheville North Carolina to give it depth and color.
At this point it did not seem complete. I decide to give it a luscious appearance by hand-painting water dripping from the center. To complete Invitation I added the spiral shell motif to give it a high-energy spinning quality. In addition to sensuality and sexuality, my goal was to create a piece that shows the universal life balance of yin and yang.
