For many years when someone talks about witches, we picture these old ladies dressed in black with a pointy hat and shoes. You know the image. Disney further ingrained it into our visual memory. But the reality of the Scottish witch trials was a persecution of women. Young women, old women. Women who had power or status. Women who refused to believe in the new religion being forced onto society. Women whose husbands wanted new wives. Women who had psychic or healing abilities. Herbalists, midwives, and women who made potions. They looked like you or me. 

My series ‘Witches’ is imaginary depictions of women who were persecuted for being witches, and the flimsy reasons for the accusations. These women didn’t dress in black, wear funny hats, have warty noses, or look like some kind of wicked ogre. They were regular looking women, which is the representation I am painting. The persecution of women continues to do this day. While it doesn’t manifest itself in hanging or burning, the effects are the same. Loss of bodily autonomy, medical gaslighting, rape, abuse, murder; the horrors for women continue. What is stopping someone from making you the next witch? 

The women may look like they are from a different era, or may look like someone you saw just yesterday. That is the point of this series. It could be any woman being persecuted in some way, just because they are a woman. ​They are small works often on paper, to represent the impermanence of their lives.