The emotional hurt and damage that we experience throughout our lives, how that feels and how it manifests itself within and around our body are important threads running throughout my work.

I want to portray how we imagine we appear to others during times of vulnerability; the scars, welts and bruises, our own personal markings, uncover our emotional as well as our physical fragility. They tell the story of our present moment as well as revealing memories and remnants from the past, things that normally go unseen.

My work often focuses on socio-political issues concerning women and girls around the world. Found images (documentary photographs or screen shots), are small and indistinct and therefore less directive, are the sources which I base my portrait heads on. I do not know these women personally, nor the details of their stories beyond their circumstances.

They have become, over time, series of work: ‘The Women who walk into doors’ are nine drawings about domestic violence. I am also working on an ongoing series about all forms of forced marriage, titled ‘Brides’.

It is the injustices of these circumstances that drives me to make this work. It is intended as a forceful comment, drawing attention to the plights of victims. I also intend to plainly provide relevant statistics concerning the abuse of women worldwide whenever I show these works.

These works are, most importantly, about honouring the subject’s physical as well as emotional story; communicating their fragility, strength and beauty, reflected in their faces.

I hope that I am giving them a presence, if not a voice.

The torsos, which are usually headless and therefore anonymous, always bare aspects of myself and my own experiences, in some senses they’re self portraits, even if I am sharing the body with someone else.

I often alter the state of the human body. Throughout my work I have always portrayed: armless figures, figures that are part animal, hearts and other internal organs, and mouths sewn shut.

Starting a new piece of work on paper is a time of abstract thought and ‘working blind’ in order to dispose of rational decision making. I use mono-printing with ink, random mark making and applying collage at this stage.

The process of creating a drawing is often one of building and destroying, manifesting thoughts and emotions by scarring, staining and peeling the surface of the paper. Continuously applying mediums to, and then ripping them away from the surface of the paper, leaves behind layers and traces on the skin.

Website : www.carolynmacarthur.com