There is a particular kind of violence in being taught how far you are allowed to fly. Clipped Wings explores the tension between freedom and restraint, vulnerability and survival, desire and the forces that keep us grounded. Through fragmented bodies, intimate embraces, wounded faces, and birds caught between flight and captivity, the works inhabit a space where tenderness and violence coexist. The bird has long been a symbol of freedom. Yet a bird does not need to be behind bars to be imprisoned. Sometimes the cage is invisible. Sometimes the wings are still there, but something has taught us not to use them. In these paintings, figures seem caught in moments of suspension; holding one another, protecting one another, consuming one another.
Love can become refuge, but it can also become a place where we disappear. The body can be both a sanctuary and a battlefield. What appears to be an act of protection may conceal fear; what looks like surrender may contain resistance. At the same time, these works turn toward the strength that can emerge between women. Vulnerability is not presented as weakness, but as a space from which solidarity, empathy, and resistance can grow.