Lyn Southworth Images

1051 CleanDirtyDead 12×16 inches, oil on coated Arches paper

This triptych can be arranged in any order, or every order, and the truth of the words in sequence is still true. Try it: Dead/Clean/Dirty, Dirty/Clean/Dead, Clean/Dead/Dirty and so on. Females in Western culture transmute between these three states of being, and can even be all three at once!

You don’t have to be a church-y person to have absorbed the above as the complete and only possible states of female existence. We (my pronouns at the moment are female) don’t have to choose or even agree with this foundational and omnipresent TRUTH — if you are designated female, this is you.

Artist comment: I like the way the words “clean” and “dirty” are modestly showing themselves as there, but not in your face, while “dead” has a flashbang. Meaning? I don’t know, maybe just a direct sensory impact into the lower brain contrasted with a shy, sneaky intrusion.

Tragic and very cool at the same time.

1063 Tyranny of the Liturgical Year (12 in x 18 in), mixed media on gessoed watercolor paper.

Visual observation that the progression of seasons of worship, Advent, Lent, etc, which are ostensibly intended to focus and enhance individual and community spirituality, turn into energy sinkholes, especially for those who have to present and administer and keep “fresh” this never-ending cycle of what’s next on the calendar.