Honey and Dew and All Things Blue 2019

Curator: Here we have Jana Brike's "Honey and Dew and All Things Blue," painted in 2019. What's your first impression? Editor: Well, it's dreamy. Ethereal. The sleeping woman, almost swallowed by the flower, suggests a sort of surrender to nature. There is vulnerability here, doesn't it remind you of something Pre-Raphaelite? Curator: I can see that. But it feels more contemporary, right? It is an oil painting that plays with the visual language of realism and symbolism. Look at the butterflies; they’re repeated around the head, one even daring to land right on the eyelid. Editor: The butterflies, precisely, introduce semiotic instability, don’t you think? Traditionally symbols of transformation and beauty, they become almost parasitic here. Placed around the orifices. They violate her dreamy moment. And the flower... a blood-red offering but at the same time, a trap. Curator: It's a complex visual field, right? This juxtaposition of beauty and something slightly unsettling is characteristic of Brike’s work. She is questioning conventional ideas of femininity and its connections to nature, a very dark fairytale if you wish. Editor: True. Her work disrupts established meanings. Color itself plays an active role here. See how the skin’s muted tones clash with the red in the flower and the saturated blue of the butterflies? There’s a push and pull, visually embodying this tension we are talking about. Curator: Exactly, color as dissonance. It creates this incredible atmosphere. But even deeper is this strange connection between human and environment. It invites reflection on vulnerability, adaptation, the temporary nature of beauty, of transformation and acceptance, wouldn’t you say? Editor: It does prompt contemplation on those themes. It’s like a painted poem—sensuous and slightly sorrowful. Curator: And after delving into "Honey and Dew and All Things Blue", the next time I spot a butterfly I might perceive it a little bit different than before! Editor: Certainly, my relationship to symbolism in portraiture will never be the same.