The Red Courage Lion Series 2004 | Gordart Gallery

Feeling fearful about my up coming show, I lost my courage. While driving around town, I past a beggar at the robots, wearing a t-shirt, it said “ Feel the Fear and do it anyway!” This has now become my personal motto.

I thought of using the lion, then I made him red, so that he became my personal metaphor for courage, and that is how the ideas for this show began. The images were sewn in red embroidery thread, thread speaks about the fragility and the connections in life, and about being female, most women sew. The Red Courage Lion interacts with figures taken from Gauguin and my wooden puppet which is a metaphor for my dark side, and symbolic of the manipulator in my life.

These sewn drawings, were hung from the ceiling in the gallery, like mobiles, you could see both sides, the chaos, and the order of my life. Included in this body of work, are seven lithographs. The entire body of work was sewn with the help of an assistant Gloria Malisa from The Artists Proof Studio in Newtown Johannesburg. A self empowerment group of women taught by Shannon Antonopolou.