Indlovukazi Yomsebenzi (Queen of Work)

I painted this work with the intention to make a powerful commentary of how deeply I felt about the amount of work it takes to be a woman.

The consistency of the women older than me that had to raise their children, to be wives, to have careers and often being the breadwinner. It seems to me that 2 hands were not enough for the amount of energy and effort they put in on a daily basis. 

I had to paint a queen that represented my admiration for the women that lead these lives.

In the painting the woman wears a headdress made of grapes which is a symbol of how much fruit these women produce through their hard work. How they tend to all the seeds in their lives, nurturing them and watching them grow to produce harvest. I felt it was appropriate to depict her with a body of hands seeing how at times society doesn't acknowledge how much harder women have to work with little or no praise because they do not display their hard work in public