Tuhinga Omua/Garden of Opportunities

Places can hold memories and can hold power. My artwork “Tuhinga Omua,” or “Garden of Opportunities” is two, 22 inch by 30 inch works which introduce the ‘place of a woman’ by working together as a single piece. This phrase, ‘place of a woman’ has a negative connotation, but this piece critiques this idea and challenges the term by making it stand for a positive garden of opportunities present in this world. I compare this ‘place of a woman’ to that of a tree. A tree is a provider for its environment and a nurturer for all the animals in that environment. I find my piece to be a positive reflection of feminism and a display of the female power of choice and expression by comparing mother nature’s tree to women. Women in the current world have a place wherever they want their place to be. The world is now a place that has an abundance of opportunities for women. This work combines pastels with a small addition of charcoal for the details. This artwork recognizes the past female artists who utilized this medium, but were not taken seriously as artists in their time and place, like we are today. The progression that has occurred in this area of society has given power to women and introduced a freedom of choice in deciding what they want to do and where they want to be. My use of vibrant and saturated pastels express the brilliance of ‘a woman’s place’ in this current world. I also wanted it to express the past as it is a soft and blurry material that is easily removed and changed. Although I use ‘place’ as an abstract term in this work, I also use this piece as an ode to New Zealand, as it was the first country to give women the right to vote. “Tuhinga Omua” means “Garden of Opportunities” in the Maori language of New Zealand, explaining the double title. All the plants and animals depicted in the work are in, or originate from, New Zealand. Overall, this work is here to help those like me change our ideas about the phrase ‘a woman’s place’ and change our minds about who has the right to stop us in all places in life. This piece helped me get over hating the term and it coined a new idea and purpose in my life. I have new motivation to fight for what I want to be and what I want to do in my life. I am not going to let society decide where my place is and if what I want to do is worthy. I hope all individuals take inspiration from that and my decision to express me and only me.