Sara McQueenie
The Artwork
Sara McQueenie
- Artist
Women the keeper of secrets; Create, release, let go, 2024
Synthetic polymer on canvas
Artist Statement
Take what resonates, leave what doesn't.
Now is the time for change
Women no more are you to hide the deep essence, the magic, the intuition, the knowing that you have.
Trust it.
Our earth mother is asking you to recognise and own your deep guidance, your brightness…
Your body is beautiful engineering, a complete whole self of spirit, soul, and being.
Know whatever scars you have incurred are healed, now is time to let go of the memory and forgiving of self and understand the privilege of your presence.
You are alive today, today, today.
Be excited about your tomorrow and let no one dim your light.
If they don’t understand, say nothing and just act.
Be your own best friend, know your worth.
Pretend if you have to start there, practice one day at a time.
What is your legacy? Think about it, many don’t.
Earth mother is sentient alive sitting on her throne, telling you that you are all her children, that you are birthed from her, with the sun and the moon, the primordial waters, the mineral soup, that you crawled out of.
She loves you,
do not hurt your earth mother.
Past generations are crying out for you to become,
step into your awesome selves, through self acceptance.
Trust in your imagination and creativity, this is how you create your life and your joy. Share this with your children, free play.
NO longer feel blame and shame for anything, there is only love, love of self and others.
Love of self when you make mistakes, you are fallible,
compassion for self is all that is needed only then will you be full enough to give heart-love to others.
Fully accepting yourselves in all your deep dark and light awesomeness.
Say to yourself whenever you remember :
“I am enough, I am worthy, I am loveable and I love with compassion and no conditions.”
Expand, share your knowledge your expertise, your skills,
take up space, speak your peace/piece,
live no longer in fear and lack.
Taking up space with compassion sends ripples of energy that enacts change.
You are change makers.
Stop the chatter of the mind, observe yourself, and quiet the mind through meditation, speak only kind words to yourself.
Accept your legacy of your past generations of women that have toiled, died, birthed, lost, loved, danced and sung songs of birth and death.
Give yourselves time and space to breathe.
Nature is calling you, “walk with me” it says and hear the minerals, the trees, the rocks. You are all part of this, they teach you about patience and silence with and within yourselves.
Become observers of the seasons, the cycles of life and embrace them fully and with reverence. Full expression, feeling yourself for your self.
Remember who you are before life got in the road,
you are infinitely powerful, you are made of stars and I am in awe of you … that is why you are to be revered.
Every beautiful thing you have experienced is an embodiment of you…
you have fallen down, and gotten back up, know thyself.
You are here to revere yourselves once again, to honour each other,
to meet each other and firstly say I see the light within you, I honour it, lets talk, lets break bread, lets make magic, art, science, maths, tap into the source that is you.
Celebrate yourselves and each other.
It is no longer dangerous for you to be seen, work together, your individual stories are unique but parallel with all women.
Follow your heart and do what brings you joy and happiness by unconditionally loving and allow others to do what they need to do.
Trust your gut and intuition at all times, when something happens, sit back and ask yourself how do I feel about it? and do what feels right and good for you.
Settle for nothing less.
The negative stories you tell ourselves have been told for centuries.
Science and self awareness asks you to learn and be better for the generations that come after you.
Time is cyclic as are your bodies, as you embrace yourselves, you embrace your daughters, your sisters, your grandmothers, your mothers, your aunties, your earth mother, your tree sisters.
You are not forgetting your brothers and your others, to heal others you must heal yourselves first,
We should love yourselves deeply, explore and adventure
Find your happiness, what makes you happy?
Understanding yourself is a deeply personal thing.
You have to spend time with yourself to see what you like and don’t like and not be apologetic about or ashamed and do the things that make you happy.
Fulfil your life and no more regretting, align yourself with what you truly deserve. Its time to fall in love with yourself.
Remember you are the beauty of the green earth, the moon among the stars and that which is all heart. You are in your moment of becoming. You are grace.
No more dimming your light, shine brightly.
Be not afraid as your DNA has been here from the beginning and you will be here in the end
Be bold, be ambitious and come from your heart, it knows so much more than your head.
This is your call to action, the time is now, tomorrow and the day after.
Self compassion is yours,
Trust your truth, your divine self is the whisper inside you, and asks you to pave your path, in gold and silver with your gems of knowing. It’s a deep profound source of life and beauty that is yours.
Even in the smallest of ways, every ripple is heard, noticed and echoed like a cooeee in the forest.
You are loved, you are loved, you are loved.
My wish is that you have the most magical life, a life in service to the earth mother and the gorgeous woman that is you.
Find your Joy.
And so it is.
Copyright Sara McQueenie 2024
Bio
This current work, ’Women the keeper of secrets; create, release, let go’ 2024, attributed to the Venus of Willendorf, is a response to the stories of amazing women in the Women of Gold Project. Sara realised that women are the keeper of secrets, private secrets of trauma, secrets of joy and the secrets of others all held in the body. This thread that links every one of us has more similarities than differences.
This work is a powerful mirror, the journey reflecting the complexities of womanhood. Brushstrokes intertwine bringing together historic and contemporary themes capturing a narrative of empowerment, resilience and identity. It is a visual discourse on disability, gender equality, body positivity, protection, matriarchs, sisterhood, archetypes and the multifaceted experiences of women. In this work the artist explores the spectrum of emotions, the convergence of challenges and triumphs, inviting the viewers to engage, question and celebrate the diversity of the modern female journey.
Sara McQueenie is a mystic. She sees the world through this lens and has been aware of alternative realities since childhood. This informs her life and work as an artist, writer, disability advocate, mother and singer. As a visual artist, she explores abstract expressionism, her work unveils a rich language, deeply rooted in the realms of symbolism, disability identity, merging historic and contemporary themes. Conceptual and spiritual layers invite the viewers to explore profound meaning within the vivid tapestry of her creations. Provoking thought and dialogue on identity, disability and the sacred, she offers a unique perspective on the intersection of art and diverse human experiences. Sara has studied symbology and sacred knowledge for over 30 years, through energetic modalities, the paintings come through meditation and energetic downloads.
McQueenie continues to explore archetypes and theoretical models that define disability, specifically The Religious Model and The Moral Model of Disability.
Born with Spina Bifida, L4-L5 partial paraplegia. She experienced many surgeries and continual visits to the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne from birth to well into her 20s. Those experiences were medical trauma and as a teaching hospital she was referred to as a number by Dr’s and students and not a whole person during these influential years. This informed her understanding that a whole person approach to health, disability and life is essential and that we heal through creativity, love, community and nature.
She believes art is one of the best pathways to reduce medical trauma in children. The care of children has always been a driving force, that includes the child within all of us. Her greatest love is being a mother to her son Jozsef.
After studying Primary Teaching at Latrobe University (majoring in Visual Arts), she was inspired to work with the disability community, developing pathways to further education and employment. She went on to co-found and develop CreateAbility (now known as CreateA), a continual project developing arts and community for people with disability. She also worked on and co-hosted the award-winning disability specific TV panel program ‘No Limits’ for eight years on Channel 31. In this role, she interviewed incredible people, sharing their stories nationally, and became a very active and visible advocate for people with disabilities.
A work injury in her 40s meant Sara required additional surgeries and she became a wheelchair user. This created a loss of identity in her as she experienced some of the darkest moments of her life. She felt stripped bare, but colour and music helped her eventually find herself again. She returned to her passion of painting and the visceral movement of acrylic and oils on canvas, motivated by the paintings and ‘Colour Theory in Art’ by Wassily Kadinsky, contemporary artist Yinka Shonibare and the sacred paintings of Hilma auf Klint.
Sara will be starting a podcast about extraordinary people and holding art exhibitions in 2024. Her mission is to make access and inclusion a priority, and to inspire others to follow their dreams, to create art, to love themselves and to know that they are enough.
Find information and follow her artistic journey at saramcq_art@instagram.com her website is currently being built.
“There is a sacred creative spark in each of us. How we nurture this is not only for ourselves but the generations to come. Be your own best friend with unconditional love of self. Be like the wind and release what you no longer need.”
- Sara McQueenie
Women of Gold is a multimedia project celebrating the stories and contributions of women in the City of Greater Bendigo. Increasing the representation of women across different sectors and inspiring industry to innovate and meet the needs of our community as a whole.
