Biographical Portrait for SK

The client is pictured as her infant self and in the present. She went from a happy time with a foster mother at the time the image was taken to a difficult adoptive family. Her long journey back to happiness involved spiritual awakenings that drew on both Christian and Buddhist wisdom. Gold leaf is both sensually appealing and, as in traditional icons, representative of spiritual depth. The large image is of Christopher, patron saint of travellers. A sense of redemption through her own mothering is represented in the Madonna and Child beneath her. A postcard of St Christopher, a wooden Madonna and Child, a buddha statue and the photograph of her infancy were all objects she kept close to her in her room.