THE Work

WOMEN WARRIORS I : The Power of Warrior

Women Warriors is the first in an ongoing series of impressional portraits of iconic women celebrities who have experienced or are fighting the plight of breast cancer.

This plight is about life, the battle to live and at the same time the enhancement of living. These portrayals bring light to the graciousness and purposefulness of taking spaces in ones lifetime to celebrate and appreciate being alive.

These images serve as a platform to celebrate these brave warriors who have earned their warrior status by taking an adverse situation and transforming it to the Power of Warrior.

The Power of Warrior is about the power of the feminine itself. It’s about self worth, purpose, and the responsibility of leadership. This is primarily a women’s disease, and these paintings are about how women see themselves and their value, and embrace the opportunity to educate and inspire others.

These representations are of course only a few of the many brave women who face breast cancer. But the ones whom I have chosen to paint, along with their published statements, are intended to represent the scope of the disease and the individual choices and battles each of them experience.

The style and techniques I chose to portray these heroic women was inspired by street art. I work from small to medium scale acrylic on canvas, applying a stencil-style portrait which serves as a simplistic interpretations of the subjects’ unique features. The texturing pattern of the canvas comes through in the portrait, creating an ethereal translucent effect representing one’s connection to the life source. The portraits are strategically placed, overlapping a gold gesso square honoring the subject and representing infinite possibilities.

These brave women warriors deserve such a presence to inspire, inform and express the Power of Warrior.

-Jacqueline Rudolph