Touch the dream

A little while ago, I was giving you a few glimpses of a work in progress. And here it is! It is like a sister-painting to my Miss Marianne piece, and I suspect I'm not done yet with these austenian girls and their windows...

This one is based on the character of Anne Elliot, from Jane Austen's novel "Persuasion": as a young girl she was persuaded not to follow her heart, her dream, not to take risks and to conform to her family's and society's expectations. Years later, she finally finds the strength to fight for her dream and make it come true, no matter what people may think! So, in the painting she is looking through the window at this dream that seemed inaccessible before, and it starts to bloom under her fingers...

I love to incorporate a sort of "lexical field" into my painting, clues that are more or less hidden and that, put together, tell a story. They invite the viewer to linger and dive further into the picture. For instance, the window is made from actual pages from the book, and as in Miss Marianne, you can see Jane Austen's handwriting on the character's skin, as if the writer were breathing life into her through her words. Also, in the novel, Anne's destiny is accomplished while she is in the city of Bath, so behind the window there is a vintage map of Bath. You almost can't see it, but it's there and that's what matters. The painting is pretty big (my biggest one yet), so here are a few details that you could see if you were looking at it "for real".

For the title, I asked the girls in the e-course I'm currently taking for help. They had a little brainstorming and came up with such inspiring ideas! "Touch the dream" ended up being my favorite one (thank you Dawn!). It really says that her dream is becoming real, tangible, and that she is reaching for it.