leave me here
not forever. just for now
For the women who have needed to stop but couldn't 
I came back from a week that had asked everything of me. Career, family, friends, the quiet maintenance of being a person in the world who is also trying to build something, contribute something, stay present for everyone who needs her. I was tired in the way that goes past sleep. The kind of tiredness that lives in the bones, that no amount of rest in a bed quite reaches.
And I found myself daydreaming. About lying in the heather. About the dunes in the last light of the day. About the wind brushing against my skin and the rustling of the grass around me and just… being. Not doing. Not producing. Not moving toward anything. Just being there, in that field, for as long as I needed. Completely unavailable to everything that needed me.
I thought about how luxurious that sounded. And then I thought about how many people that luxury is simply not available to. Not because they don’t want it but because of everything they carry. The weight of keeping a household together. Of navigating systems that were not built for them. Of showing up for communities that need their voice, their labour, their presence. Of surviving, in the most literal sense, circumstances that leave no room for stillness.
"There’s a kind of exhaustion sleeping alone can’t resolve."Women today are remarkable. The roles they hold simultaneously, change makers, caregivers, advocates, providers, visionaries, survivors, are simply extraordinary. And it is a lot. It is genuinely, beautifully, exhaustingly a lot. And still, rest, true rest, not just sleep, but the deep stillness where nothing is required of you, is rarely celebrated as the achievement it is.
This painting is for that. For the woman who has earned the field. For the one who dreams of it but cannot get there yet. For everyone who has ever felt the particular ache of needing to stop and not being able to.
The title is an exhale. Leave me here. Not forever. Just for now. Just long enough to remember what it feels like to be without weight.
Rest is a win that should be afforded to all. This painting says so.
Leave me here
Private Release
May 14th -16th @ 21:00 CEST
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