Looking to the notion of the masculine as her muse, artist Tracy Payne presents her latest body of work, aptly titled Muse, at the Barnard Gallery in Cape Town until 31 August 2011.
It was a need to ground herself and return “home” for inspiration that led Payne to creating the Muse collection. Djamal is the beautiful young man who agreed to pose for her for these works. In Arabic “Djamal” means “beauty”, which Payne saw as more than a coincidence.
Payne’s work integrates what she learnt about the strength, beauty and serenity of Shaolin monks with the idea of the quiet contemplation of nature to express something about the possible healing of the human spirit.
