For me, working as a woman artist, a painter, sometimes feels like my only outlet for the most feminine parts of who I am. I am no doubt a woman, but it is not so easily expressed in the day to day of my life as a single mother of two daughters working in a time where still, I am judged and observed as a strange enigma because I am not in a relationship of any kind and I live my life freely and independently without a man by my side. I have to be tough and strong all the time and completely embrace masculinity as much as femininity to survive. It is an imbalance that in my survival as a woman I struggle with. Some instances come to mind, like when I went to rent an apartment in Brooklyn one time, the landlord bold faced asked me "where is your husband, and how will your support yourself and your children on your own"? another recently in Amsterdam said " You and your daughters are such beautiful family, but I see one thing wrong with this picture, where is your husband?" it is moments like this that drive my internal strength to truly embrace who I am and that I have strong and beautiful daughters that I raised alone and then through my work, this light is translated through paint.
I find comfort in the unusual beauty of abstraction, there is an ambiguity and unwillingness to conform a structure of impulses, a certain request of my hand to perform
I suffered from an illness which caused me to become blind for a year of my childhood, giving me a different perspective and appreciation for light and color. My sight recovered, but my vision would never be the same after the constant landscape of solid grey that year. The world now appeared to me in great colour and sound, playing off one another to discover balance in chaos. I works tirelessly to understand mynew perception of beauty within a strong palette and the interaction between paint and the various materials used to build and create the forms and shapes of my work.
my website is: www.heatherchontos.com
thank you!
#seeallthiswomen #iMAE
