Ocean Woman empowers through understanding, empathy, and compassion.
She is the fifth painting in a series called Women of Influence.
She is sister to Princess and the Tui Birds, Woman with Sapphire Eyes, Woman with Lotus Flowers, The Butterfly Woman, Three Baby Birds, and Woman with White Peacock Feathers, with The Centenarian Woman soon to join as number eight. Each painting portrays different aspects of nature, women’s culture, and belief systems.
Ocean Woman is a woman swimming in light. She shines brightly, holding a gentle yet confident gaze as she floats in the sea—entwined in nature’s underwater garden of seaweed, stars, turtles, and butterflies.
The turtles swimming around her symbolise gratitude for the life she has lived thus far. She has known darkness but has grown through it, emerging as a woman of empathy and compassion, sensitive to those around her. Now that she has found her light, she shares it with those who have yet to find theirs—those still navigating their way through the dark.
The butterfly Idea Idea, with its soft, delicate colours, has been specifically chosen to symbolise the ideas that can come to fruition if she is brave enough to pursue them. A butterfly represents metamorphosis and transformation. In my work, it stands for bravery and courage—stepping boldly from the dark cocoon into the light and realising you have grown incredible wings to fly.
Shine brightly in your life, and share your light even with those who try to dim it—for they, too, are searching for a way out of the dark.
I wrote a poem for this painting:
Swimming out on a starry sea,
I remind myself of what I can be.
Sparkling magic all around,
I remember… just be me.
The flaws, the faults, the bumps I see,
Are all just gloriously part of me.
Those who try to dim my light,
Only make me want to shine it bright.
Shining my light for you to see,
Shows us there is enough for both you and me.
Swimming in a starry sea,
The light is dazzling all around me.
