This postcard is made from a gouache painting that is very personal to me.
I made the painting around the time that I published an essay on Feminist Current called Cassandra Lives. By the time I wrote the piece I had spent a long time feeling like Cassandra myself, and I read many books by women who had been violated and who spoke out and were silenced and punished for it, in order to find some resolution to this experience. The books did offer me some, which I relate in the essay. However, so do cormorants, or shags, my favourite sea birds. I love watching them diving from rocks on the beach and sunbathing with their wings outstretched. They seem such content, quietly proud birds and though they live in large colonies they spend a lot of time solitary. It brings me instant calm to watch them, and they inspire me to maintain pride in solitude and to spend it in communion with sun and sea. This postcard is for anyone who needs a reminder to look out for who or what inspires you to relish your solitude, however much you have.
$10