Under the Moon by Amanda Greavette

Under the Moon...

By Amanda Greavette

41x57 2012 Oil on Canvas 

The Birth Project is a series of paintings depicting women, birth and motherhood.  Under the Moon is a part of the large paintings that represent the real and symbolic nature of birth as a holistic experience.  Birth is a powerful and profound event that changes and shapes identity. This physical, emotional and spiritual awakening is the perfect landscape to explore universal experiences like pain, euphoria, transformation and the welcoming of new life. The artist aims to create work that is provocative, beautiful and heavy with emotion and symbol. While Amanda paints birth because she loves it, she wants the paintings and their images to creatively and effectively tell women’s stories as they’re experienced every day.  The Birth Project as a body of work can be a medium to inspire confidence and possibility in women who are approaching pregnancy and motherhood, as well as portray experiences in a real and tangible way. As part of a social dialogue and movement that creates change for childbearing women, raises public awareness of issues surrounding birth and promotes a positive and empowering image of childbirth and motherhood, the paintings fill a visual void in birth culture. (http://amandagreavette.com/birth-project-gallery/)

Biographical information on Amanda Greavette:
Amanda Greavette lives and works in Ontario, Canada.  She studied at the Ontario College of Art and Design (2004) and has exhibited in many solo and group shows.  Amanda is a La Leche League leader and a founding member of one of the few midwifery advocacy consumer groups in Ontario. Her work is based on years of personal lived experience with the subjects she represents, and the shared experience of peers. Amanda has 5 children and is raising them in a partial straw-bale off-grid rural home.(http://amandagreavette.com/about/)

Artist Statement
Amanda Greavette is an oil painter who creates life-size figurative pieces and landscapes.  Amanda loves the human form and is drawn to the stories of life, especially those that involve transformation, relationships, struggle and love. One of the guiding philosophies of her art practice is to ‘paint what you know’, making art that reflects one’s own experience, passion and interest.  While her figurative work is representational, it is also expressive and symbolic and refers to the inner landscape.  Painting the sacred and transcendent in common moments, in a vibrant and emotive fashion makes the work memorable and impactful. (http://amandagreavette.com/about/)

Elements of Art:
Emphasis on the woman's belly and the usage of the circular shape in the painting directs my attention on the pregnancy. The symbolism of the nest creates emotions of building a home and nurturing the new baby.  The brushstrokes of the nest and the branches create the illusion of texture as the branches cradles her in a protective manner. The nest is a representation of the home she is building as Fichner-Rathus explains, "Symbols convey ideas, beliefs, messages or the ideology underlying works of arts; investigating their significance enriches our understanding of the meaning ad purpose of the work" (Fichner-Rathus 2015). Like the Hellenistic period this painting shows the raw emotion in the woman's face demonstrating the feelings she is experiencing during childbirth.

Connection:

I chose this painting for the symbolism of a mother building her nest while pregnant. I have always said that a mother becomes a mother the day she finds out she is pregnant and a father doesn't become a father until the baby is born. The mother has nine months to build her nest and get ready for the baby.