A Goddess Delivers, canvas and Giclee prints and cards now available in my shop!
My lovely midwife and herbalist friend Adrienne Leeds, of Abundant B’earth, was generous enough to share a writing from Whapio Diane Bartlett called The Holistic Stages of Labor that I truly enjoyed, and *felt* very much like what I wanted to convey in my painting:
“The time of the Birthing Tides generally feels good to women. No matter how tiring or exhausting her journey, the Mother experiences a second wind, a new spurt of energy and excitement. The birth now becomes more of an active event — the receptive state of Between the Worlds gives way to the active state of the Birthing Tides.
Most Moms are galvanized into a place of intense power. Sensations are considered strong and powerful rather than painful. A Mother who is alert, erect and under her own authority will instinctively know what to do. She will find the appropriate place, position and rhythm for the work she is doing.
She will absolutely know how to birth her baby.”
This is my third Goddess painting, and I’ve been loving painting them. And I can’t think of any state that a woman is more like a goddess then when she is literally birthing the child she created within her own body and soul.
This painting was heavily inspired by my dear friend Barbara Rivera, who inspires woman to do what feels right for them during childbirth and empowers their birthing experience.
Barbara suggested I paint a pregnant goddess… one who has found their footing by grounding to the earth and welcoming the crescendo of contractions through her body like the waves of the sea.
I decided to paint her under the full moon… and with deep indigo and violet colors that reflect the spiritual and intuitive intensity of childbirth.
Gathered around the actively laboring mother are all the loved ones who support her spirit… joyfully looking onward as she reaches up to welcome her baby into the world.
I love this painting and see it as a great baby shower gift, expectant mommy gift, a focal piece for laboring woman to commune with, hanging in a midwife or doula or OB’s office, or for a new mother, in tribute to everything she did for love. xoxo