Paintings #17 and 18 for Maryhill School of Theology

DIPTYCH: _The Recasting of Eve_
Oil on cradled canvas
4.5’ x 12’
August 3 – September 2, 2020

There are four possible interpretations of this diptych:

The first is the modern one, indicating that a devotion to the divine and the spiritual liberates women from the shallow stereotypes imposed on them by modern society.

The second is that spiritual liberation frees women from being shackled to material things: physical beauty, wealth, fine clothing, jewels, and luxuries, among others.

The third refers to the Filipino women’s need to value their cultural and ethnic origins. The Left Panel has a split bamboo on the extreme left, alluding to the Philippine creation myth of man and woman, while all other items on the right represent Westernized values and trappings that tend to annihilate the authentic identity of Filipino women.

The fourth is traditionalist Catholic, in that the liberation of the Catholic woman is possible only through Mary and her Immaculate Heart, and that, if only appropriately perceived, Catholicism already liberates women from what they have wrongly perceived as non-liberation all along: nunhood, for instance, is a liberation from ephemeral, romantic attachments; the Sacrament of Matrimony is a liberation from a non-productive life to one of loving and caring for a family; and even the life of a single, Catholic woman can be a liberation from trivial concerns and an opportunity to pursue successful careers, intellectual achievements, and deeper, spiritual matters.

The following is the auditory stimulus I used while making this diptych. The auditory stimuli I use have nothing to do with the subject matter of my paintings:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eja-popojUo