Nicole Rose Gelormino

The Origin of God

2020

oil on canvas

36 x 36"

A round figure with undulating skin of beige, tan, gold and pink pulls open her own body to peer into her own internal world, as an act of deep self-reflection. The figure reposes in a diaphanous bed of deep green satin. The opening yawns like the mouth of a cave lined with charcoal gray craggy rock. The cave ends at another opening—a light-filled portal to an unknown place. Courbet’s painting The Origin of the World reasserts the relegation of woman to domesticity and necessities “of the flesh.” The Origin of God is about power of woman’s self-reflection as a journey to unknown dimensions of creativity spirituality and knowledge.