Emmanuelle Auzias

For my new show called Turquoise Variations, I made a series of paintings exploring the blue-green color that so often finds its way into my paintings intuitively. I did some research to find out why this color kept recurring in my work. I discovered that turquoise -- the color and the gemstone -- has been associated with healing, the ancient Egyptian goddess Isis, protection from the evil eye, and warding off ghosts. In some Native American traditions, a woman who had suffered a terrible loss was designated as the "turquoise lady" for a period of two years. During these two years, she worked through her bereavement to make a fresh start in life. I can see myself as a kind of turquoise lady, reconciling my own sorrow through my art. From the perspective of Art Therapy, the light blue color represents positive mothering, and green represents a guided or controlled kind of nurturing. Green is often associated with the heart chakra, and blue with the throat or voice. Perhaps turquoise represents blending the compassionate wisdom of the heart with the manifestation of this wisdom in the world as artistic expression.