I Who Was as Fresh as the Rainfall

Each piece in this series begins with me handwriting the words from a female poet's poem about water. This act of writing the words helps me dive deeper into the meaning of the piece and my response to it, based on my own life experience. I then seal the words to make them permanent, but I also cover them with many layers of paint and/or ink to connote how women's voices tend to be obscured in the arts. Yet the words are still there, and can never truly be lost.

This piece is inspired by both the Bellamy River (the tidal river I live by) and Sara Teasdale, a Pulitzer prize-winning poet in the early 1900s.?
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The words written down and sealed as the first layer are:?
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"I came from the sunny valleys?
And sought for the open seas,?
For I thought in its gray expanses?
My peace would come to me....?
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But the thirsty tide ran inland,?
And the salt waves drank of me,?
And I who was fresh as the rainfall?
Am bitter as the sea"?
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So much meaning in this poem for me, about nature, change, loss, and, most importantly, being consumed as a woman in our society. There's a lot to unpack in the poem--so much so, that I might need more paintings to express it all. But for now, what came through was Teasdale's gentle nature and bewildered sorrow at her place in the world. I used shimmering gold and silver inks, as well as lighter layers of paint in the upper 2/3 to show the initial hope and optimism of the poem, and the dark, heavier colors toward the bottom to show the ominous "pull" of giving oneself over, even when there's no longer a choice.?
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This one moved me to tears as I painted. Something about the delicacy of Teasdale's voice has wrapped itself around my heart.