Molly Cowles Portfolio
Illustration
“Buried within its Flesh” 2025 BFA Capstone Project.
Acrylic on Canvas.
8inx10in, 10inx10in.
Buried within its Flesh is a series of paintings exploring the symbolic representation of a prey animal and her death in relation to the experience of feeling a loss of innocence after sexual assault. My goal is to tell a story with these images, and to hopefully comfort viewers who may have had similar experiences.
Disillusionment lies dormant
Buried within its flesh
She smiles when the reaper arrives, reaching for deaths hand
Only to blink and return
Unwilling reincarnation
After testing out some ideas that weren’t right for my BFA capstone project, I landed on Buried within its Flesh. Most of my process for this project was drawing upon my own experiences and feelings to create a symbolic narrative about feeling like you are losing your innocence after a violation like sexual assault. I began painting in January, but didn’t finish finalizing the concepts of this project until mid-march. I was messing around with a lot of different styles and imagery, taking away paintings and adding in new ones, and changing color palettes/compositions up until the very end of my timeline. On a more personal note, this project in general helped me accept some of my own experiences. I also experienced many more intense emotions while working on this series. Among other things, I felt angry, I mourned, I felt challenged, and I also felt clarity. Overall, I’m so pleased with this project. I’m very grateful I was able to process my emotions through working on it, and I’m happy I ended up with a product that is so meaningful to me.
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