The Thinkress
“The Thinkress” 30x40 acrylic on canvas - 2023
A Lot of people think that The Thinkress is a self portrait and it’s something that I really want to clarify- because it’s not. The Thinkress is capturing a moment in time. I paint women that I want to feel represented by, and sometimes I do give the people I paint similar characteristics of mine. Big eyes, big lips, big bodies, bracelets, curly hair, a variety of brown skins - I want us to be in art spaces all over the world, so that’s exactly what I am going to do
~
In 2016 I went to Paris for the first time. It was a long weekend trip during a semester abroad. Paris is: gorgeous architecture, incredible food, dirty ass streets, an elevated fashion scene, sometimes rude people (that you could honestly experience anywhere) and of course the home to miraculous eras of art and artists. The gardens of the Museum de Rodin were a stop on our hop on- hop off bus tour, and although we didn’t enter the museum or gardens we didn’t need to because from the outside all you could see was him: Auguste Rodin’s 6 foot bronze “Le Penseur.”
As a super mercurial individual, The Thinker was a piece of art I felt I could really relate to. Thinking is a marvel of being human, it’s what’s allowed us to continuously evolve. Simultaneously, to be human often entails being stuck in thought, so much so that it’s painful. To overthink can really block you from a lot- so, this piece of art is one that I often refer back to. At that moment, seeing the statue in real life, its astounding realness really makes you think about the human nature of thinking.
First sketch of “The Thinkress,” May 2023, during a therapy session.
The Thinkeress is my interpretation of the very human experience of thinking. When I was thinking of the modern embodiment of that I imagined a woman at work. Sitting at a desk, four white walls, enough silence to drown in. The Thinkeress is the modern day woman, trapped in thought. She’s everything society ever told her that she needs to be: young, beautiful, accomplished and yet she lives in her head dreaming up a completely different future. The Thinkress is a moment in time before a new beginning and after the storm. She is the intellectualization of picking up the pieces, of the planification of the greatest era of your life, the 2 of wands (tarot).
She wears purple because of its intuitive nature. The greens of the background represent fortitude and abundance. The orange water lilies portray a new confidence that she’s only recently bestowed upon learning a big lesson about herself. Lastly, the one open orange waterlily signaling that enlightenment. The gold she dons is cultural.
To my over-thinkers this one is from me to you. You have the power to make your mind a safe space.
xoxo,
-Mar
