RITUALS

Rituals is a series of twelve paintings of female figures each performing a solemn ritual—offering an object or connecting in an ethereal way to a shape or form. I chose a tall thin format for the paintings to suggest structural columns. Exhibited together, the columns imply an imagined architectural space. The paintings reference the caryatid--a sculpted female figure used as ornamental support in ancient Greek architecture. Specifically, I reference the six sculptures that served as columns and supported an entablature on their heads on The Porch of the Caryatids, part of the Erechtheum Templeat the Acropolis in Athens. In 2001, the twelve paintings in this series were installed in a dedicated 25’ x 40’ room at Meadow Brook Art Gallery, in Rochester, MI. The exhibition alluded to The Porch of the Caryatids, although the painted figures on the surrounding walls faced inward, into the interior space, whereas the ancient sculptures stared stoically outward, away from the temple.