A mother and daughter have used their experience in overcoming a dark and difficult year, to reclaim their power through an art exhibition.
Stella Kinsella, 56, and Evangeline Sanderson, 16, are Hobsons Bay painters who together spent the last year creating 40 pieces of art, which are now on display at the Louis Joel Arts & Community Centre in Altona.
The exhibition titled Monstera Nervosa, is described by Stella as a means of processing whathappened and is now hopefully a step towards recovery.
“This is a first for both my daughter and myself, it was our response to a very difficult personal life experience that we were going through as a family,”she said.
“We decided to work our way through that process by creating this series of work.”
The artworks are made up of a number of different mediums, including charcoal, acrylic, oil on canvas, wood board cuttings and charcoal on cotton.
The pair worked on the project part time also juggling school and employment, working independently but to a similar narrative.
The narrative explores body image and the psychological impact of invasion by dark forces.
Described by Stella as using figurative characters, the pieces are both analogous of archetypal heroes and villains and interpretive of a year of quiet terror.
“We worked on the same thing but independently, Evangeline followed a different process to mine,” she said.
“We were always in discussion about what we were doing, I tried to find a balance of encouraging her and not stepping in too much.
“In the end she found her own style and her own voice in the journey towards creating the body of work.”
The exhibition will be on display until November 16.
