Finding the Feminine (1993-2002)

Early 2000’s – late 1990

2002 - The Looking Glass in the Garden of the Interior

This series explored the psychological, social, and emotional phase of a girls life in coming of age, as seen through the artist’s own maternal experience. Ref Into the Woods, Mirror Mirror, Ennui. ‘The looking glass of maternal experience empathises with daughters, remembering girlhood by searching for the exact place where the bridge between childhood and adult life is located. …. here are the dangers and pleasures of childhood, the internal life of girls. Anna-Maria Dell’Oso -catalogue essay.

Late 1990’ early 2000’s – ‘Its all in the Mind’ series

In this series Valadon explored the psychological states that had shaped the patterns of her life and self-identity. Her roles as lover, mother, partner, friend. They remain some of her most intriguing works in terms of their engagement with theoretical ideas about identity formation and gender. Sigmund Freud makes a significant entry as a doll held precariously in the hand of a young virile woman in It’s All in the Mind, 2001. This is a work of angry boundary breaking and exhilarating power. In Girl on a Swing, 1999, doll figures act out the conflicts of responsibility and the liberating choice to nurture the inner sensual child without shame. - Rod Pattenden, ‘Divine Burlesque’

1996 –The January Series, Pieta’s, The Offering

Valadon’s attention shifted towards a heightening of the sensual capacity of painting that included magnificently lush flower studies that were charged with an innate sexuality, filled with gaps, shadows and pungent aromas. The human figure also received an intimate observation as exampled in The Offering, where she demonstrated her focus on touch, as figures reach out in support and nurture. These works are her most intimate and arousing in terms of their sensual engagement. - Rod Pattenden ‘Divine Burlesque’. The Divine Burlesque’ by Lizzy Marshall, CAUMAC Newsletter, December 2006