She claps no hands, 2026
Charcoal and oil on canvas
69,5 cm x 110 cm
Artist’s Statement
She Claps No Hands forms part of an ongoing body of work in which I create my own gods, saints, prayers, and religious narratives as a way of navigating the world around me. The painting exists in a liminal space between devotion and rebellion, humour and frustration, self-acceptance and self-judgement.
The blue-skinned nuns gather around a fragmented throne-like couch that shifts between perspectives and refuses to settle into a single reality. Behind them, layers of handwritten text accumulate like evidence, conversation, prayer, bureaucracy, memory, complaint, and confession. Some of the writing references real-world concerns, some references popular culture, and some emerges from the ongoing dialogue I have with myself while trying to make sense of an increasingly complicated world.
The missing noses reference both the legend of Saint Æbbe’s nuns and the expression “cutting off your nose to spite your face.” Rather than illustrating either directly, the painting uses the image as a metaphor for sacrifice, adaptation, survival, self-sabotage, and transformation. The wounds are no longer visible. The act has already happened. What remains is the trace.
Although the figures appear playful, theatrical, and even absurd, the painting is ultimately a prayer. Not a traditional prayer, but one assembled from unfinished thoughts, to-do lists, pension disputes, song lyrics, private jokes, moments of doubt, and the search for meaning within everyday chaos. It asks whether acceptance is something granted by institutions, faith, or society – or whether it is something we must learn to extend to ourselves.
