Praying Woman and the Holy Water of Love

I fell in love with the book and theology of Julian of Norwich. Her way of seeing God acting as a mother and her deep conviction that all things shall be well is an essential source of solace for me.
I wrote my master thesis of religious studies on the individuation of Julian of Norwich to a female author at the University of Helsinki in 2019.

My four paintings called Praying Woman and the Holy Water of Love were on display in my exhibition Lake in Laterna Magica Gallery in Helsinki in 2023. The name Lake does not refer only to an ecosystem and ecotheology but also to God as Love in which you can be cherished and swim. Many medieval women mystics reached the Sea of God in their mystical experiences.

I get the ideas of my paintings as inner images that are so demanding that I have to try to express them. So Julian`s way of seeing images speaks to me very profoundly. And as the visionary experience turned the direction of Julian`s life and made her an author, so the inner images have changed me, made me a maker and given the courage to show my face. I´m the subject of my own life. Julian and her book have encouraged me over the last twenty years, I still carry the book with me every day.

2023 Love is the Meaning. An exhibition of contemporary art to celebrate the 650th Anniversary of Julian of Norwich, Norwich, England.

Photographs Tiina Bragge.