Description
She is..….. by Sara Gaqa
The paintings in the “She Is…” series were created exclusively for the exhibition She, a group exhibition featuring the work of nine female artists.
“She Is Faith,” “She Is Patience,” and “She Is Persistence” explore qualities that I associate with the experience of being a woman, but not as fixed definitions of femininity. Rather, they are qualities that will develop through life—often shaped by responsibility, relationships, uncertainty, loss, hope, and the many different roles women may move between throughout their lives.
Faith is needed to begin anything without knowing exactly where the path will lead. Patience is the ability to allow something to unfold without being able to control its timing. Persistence is the decision to continue, even when progress is slow or circumstances are difficult. These qualities are not sometimes gentle or passive and sometimes, they require determination, resilience, sacrifice, and, more than anything, courage.
I see these qualities reflected in many aspects of women’s lives, particularly in motherhood. The moment a woman learns that she is carrying a child, she begins preparing for someone she has not yet met. She invests her time, energy, care, and love into a future that she cannot predict, working tirelessly throughout the years. Much of what she gives may not be appreciated in the moment and will only bear its fruits many years later. Yet motherhood is only one expression of these qualities. Women experience faith, patience, and persistence in many ways, as partners, daughters, professionals, artists, caregivers, leaders, and simply as individuals finding their own way through life.
Faith allows us to begin, persistence gives us the courage to continue, and patience teaches us to accept that growth has its own rhythm. Together, they reflect a form of strength that is not always visible from the outside, a strength that can include tenderness and determination, vulnerability and courage, surrender and action.
The visual language of the three paintings is also connected to the idea of Kintsugi, the Japanese art of repairing broken objects with gold. Rather than hiding the cracks, Kintsugi makes them visible and turns them into part of the beauty of the finished piece. I have used gold leaf and crackled surfaces throughout the series as a visual reflection of this idea. The cracks can represent the experiences that leave their mark on us, moments of loss, disappointment, struggle, or change, but also the possibility of healing, transformation and ultimately growth.
This idea is particularly meaningful to me because I believe that growth rarely happens without difficulty. The experiences that challenge us can leave lasting marks, but they can also change the way we see ourselves and the world around us. The gold running through the cracks becomes a symbol of this transformation: not of perfection, but of finding value and beauty in what has been experienced and survived.
The paintings also incorporate passages from Khalil Gibran’s The Prophet. His reflections on faith, joy and sorrow, self-knowledge, and the human experience in general have influenced my work for many years. By writing these passages into the paintings, I make the words part of the physical layers of the work, some visible and others partially concealed beneath the paint and gold. They become another record of experience, much like the layers of life itself.
