Floral Reviere

mixed media painting, 15’’ x 13 ½’’—2024

Diving into femininity and nature, intertwining classical and contemporary elements. Oil paint, clay, and gold leaf evoke Renaissance traditions celebrating the body, while the abstract forms push the ideas into modernized contexts.

Sculptural clay elements―breasts and hands―embody presence and fragility, offering a reclamation of femininity in many forms. Gold leaf underscores the sacred and divine, while resin-encased dried flowers evoke preservation and transformation.

Willis’ practice navigates the delicate balance between growth and decay, drawing parallels between the body and nature’s cyclical rhythms. By the merging of traditional artistic techniques with contemporary materials, they interrogate the evolution of femininity and identity across time, in the presentation of the body as both a landscape and a living artifact.