‘Up through the sieve of life with me. (Mariam)’

Kate Howe, 2021, oil paint, oil pastel and rapidograph pencil on canvas, 214 x 214 cm. Collection: Erotics of Power, Painting.

“Mariam’s laugh is strong, fierce, her own. Mariam’s eyes never trust completely. Mariam is complex, always turning toward the light but full of the unknowable pain of total subjugation. Mariam brings into my life a friendship so stout, so thick, so full of joy, that I painted this as a response to being with her, to her trust of me, to our friendship. We wore frozen tea towels on our necks and walked around the studio in bare feet, dancing in the hose, trying to stay cool while I painted this.

I wrote this poem the morning before we began the painting day:

First I saw you in the shadows
And then the sun hit
New leaf green
Through the iris of my heart
Effervesce
Lift
Rise
Float
Like me
Upward
Through the sieve of life. ”

- Excerpts from Howe’s writing on this artwork.