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A feminine-based painting of Aries, peaceful warrior of the ZodiacCreating paintings that empower women Once upon an idea ago while staring at the ceiling and awaiting sleep I had an inspiration descend upon me and settle in my psyche inviting me into a journey with no map. It had to do with creating a feminine-based series of astrology paintings, and gearing them towards offering images to women young and old that empower in contrast to mainstream media images that set impossible standards of beauty (and sexuality) that I feel is contributing to self esteem issues and a degradation in our culture as a whole.
There are twelve signs in Western Astrology with the first being Aries. For the most part Aries is always depicted as a male and a warrior. As I had planned to use mythology and archetypes in my paintings, I was instantly drawn to the Greek Goddess Athena who is a Goddess of war and wisdom. I decided to adopt her owl as a symbol of wisdom and to flip the war image into 'spiritual warrior'.
 This ancient statue depicts Athena with a snake, another ancient symbol of wisdom.
Introducing my Astrological guides for this journey I have been fortunate to have two wonderful Astrologers as guides during this painting project. One being Rick Levine who is a brilliant astrologer/author/speaker and has been kind enough to share his insights into the various signs of the Zodiac, and my friend Stefani Quane whose bold creative twist on astrology has helped to energize my previous concepts of who these characters of the Zodiac might really be! Stefani inspired me to give some contemporary qualities to the Aries in my painting by describing her as "A gutsy broad who speaks before she thinks...audacious...will run into a burning house to rescue a child...in good physical form/athletic...CEO material".
And so she began...
 To create more cohesion I decided to drop a crop circle into the background. It was one of the easiest of the crop circle designs I could find and free-hand drew it from a video on YouTube! I also decided to give my female Aries a pair of contemporary cargo pants but tricked out the camouflage with peace signs. Even though she was initially inspired by a Greek Goddess I see her as Celtic.
Here is a link to my painting of Aries in her finished state.
The icing on the cake Soon after I had launched my female version of Aries into the world I received a request from Katharine Kruger who teaches feminine empowerment to young women, 7th-9th grades, to use my painting of Aries on her website, www.joyw.webs/feminepresence.com. I will thrilled (and fulfilled) seeing my original intention take form!
I hope that all of my 'Empowered Feminine Zodiac' images will make their way into the lives of anyone who is interested in shifting the current paradigm into one of shared power and co-creating a world of fulfillment and who is looking for images that engender and inspire these ideals.
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