Woman's Shadow

A shadow shows and hides at the same time. You see only the outline of a figure; the details stay dark, so you're left to guess who she is. This one is hunched over, folding inward, as if trying to take up as little space as possible. Shyness? Shame? Or simply a quiet, inward femininity? You decide — and whatever you project onto her is the point.

I made it one evening in my dark studio, working by a single small lamp. My own hunched shadow fell across the wall while I drew hers on the paper, until I could hardly tell the two apart — as if I'd stepped inside the very shadow I was making.

A shadow exists only because there is light; the black figure quietly glorifies it. This is a small study, the foreshadowing of a painting to come.

An original drawing. Signed.

Jolanta