Sanctuary Series

The 50-year experiment of women's liberation has provided women with the freedom to dissent from the status quo and assemble new rituals, mechanics, and creeds that speak to the true and ever-evolving nature of womanhood. My work explores those themes of feminine empowerment, embodied rage, and radical authenticity. By conducting interviews of diverse - "wild" women, and referencing their experiences, adversities, and physical spaces, these works were born of extensive research, collaboration, and sisterhood.

This series centers on the sanctuary spaces women create, depicted through mirror reflections. Mirrors act as portals into sacred interior worlds, where women are free to embody their most authentic expressions.

Through oil painting, I depict diverse feminine forms in intimate, self-possessed settings, referencing—but also subverting—the history of sexualized portraiture and the male gaze. Objects such as colored glass, incense, and ornate filigree reference the iconography of churches and temples—sites of divine connection and ritual transcendence.

Prismatic distortions beyond the mirror intensify the contrast between external instability and internal stillness. The work becomes a meditation on transforming rage through pleasure, magic, and ritual—reframing these experiences as acts of revolution.

-Whitney Paige