Christy, The Maiden of Light 

Editor: So this is “Christy, The Maiden of Light” by David Michael Bowers, looks like an oil painting. She's portrayed as a warrior, and she looks powerful but also contemplative. What strikes me most is the way she's placed within this vast landscape. What do you see in this piece? Curator: The portrait pushes against established ideas around power and femininity. The artist presents a figure who embodies strength, yes, but also, through her gaze and the softness in her features, invites us to consider the multifaceted nature of identity. Is she a comment on historical erasure of women warriors or is she reclaiming the genre? Editor: I hadn't thought of the erasure of women warriors. The traditional romantic landscape also seems to clash with the warrior figure; why put her there? Curator: The landscape itself speaks to Romanticism, a movement that often intersected with ideas of nationalism and idealized histories. By placing Christy within this context, what assumptions does Bowers challenge, and whose stories are foregrounded, or backgrounded? How does gender affect our understanding of history? Editor: It sounds like this isn't just about aesthetics; there is definitely some pushing back. How are ideas of femininity changed if we consider it from Bowers' point of view? Curator: Absolutely, and by considering those gendered perspectives we need to be ready to consider how other facets of social and cultural narratives may be woven in and/or subverted as well. Where does Christy, and Bowers for that matter, sit in a painting tradition where white males historically have been in control of the brush, of the subject, of everything? Editor: I think that I will be spending more time considering whose point of view that I am seeing and learning more about it, and how painting changes, depending on this facet of the painting and artist's persona. Curator: Yes! I will remember to see not just with my eyes but from my seat, knowing it will change my understanding.