Jeanne D'Arc
1997 36.25 x 36.25"" ~ 92 x 92 cm Acrylic Paint on CanvasI have always been fascinated by the Joan of Arc story. If for no other reason than the fact that there are so few women who have managed to come down as really strong figures in recorded history, mainly because women were not the ones doing the writing. I wrote the title in French because Joan, or Jeanne, did not understand English.
In a time when peasants were seen and not heard, and women rated considerably lower down on the scale, Joan an uneducated peasant girl made a court, an army, and a country, stand up and take notice of her. Her conviction and her faith helped to unite the disjointed factions in France, to fight and defeat the English and to see their dauphin, (I refer to him as the weenie king), crowned as king in a united France. Then the king embarrassed at owing such a debt of gratitude to a mere peasant girl cajoled Joan into remaining at the head of an ill equipped much reduced army, until she was captured and finally burned at the stake by the English, the sacrificial lamb.
This is actually a self-portrait of me as 19 year old Joan (Ha!), with my husband as the weenie king, (what a good sport). Special thanks to Leonard Cohen for his inspirational song, Joan of Arc.
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