Aileen Imperatrice
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    • Indigenous 2023 2024 2025
    • The Cancer Chronicles 2022 2023 2024
    • Paper Dolls 2019 2020 2021
    • Revisitation 2018
    • Incessant Wallpaper 2015, 2016, 2017
    • Human:Nature 2014
    • ::Selective Memory:: 2013
    • Necessity Finds Illumination 2012
    • Reliquary 2011
    • Past Series >
      • Rituals 2010
      • Shifting Boundaries 2009
      • Letters to Myself 2008
      • Trapped in Transition 2007
      • Self-Portraits 2006
      • Other Works - various years
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Paper dolls 

Paper Dolls originated from 2019 while I took care of my ailing Mother until her death in November that year. I remembered in the quiet moments how, when I was a child, she introduced me to paper dolls she had kept. It was the simple memories like this that flooded my mind as I watched her die. I had planned on creating this series in 2019 from the sketches and notes I had made that year, but then other things happened. It was just 2 weeks after we buried her that I learned I had Cancer, then, following my 2nd Chemo treatment when the U.S. succumbed to the Covid-19 Pandemic and necessary shelter-in-place began. When I finally gained the strength to create the work, beyond the bittersweet memories with my Mom, I realized the paper doll paintings came to symbolize so much more. Both due to my Cancer treatments, Chemo and Radiation, as well as with the Pandemic, we all needed to exert caution to avoid human contact. First, for me to avoid any sickness while my immune system was depleted and for the world to avoid spreading this awful virus. The Paper Dolls therefore also came to represent the shield we needed to present to the world for protection and the alternate selves we presented in the world during this time.
Rock Paper Scissors, 2021, china marker, acrylic on canvas, 30" x 30"
SOLD Paper Trip, 2021, china marker, acrylic on canvas, 12" x 12"
SOLD Paper World, 2021, china marker, acrylic on canvas, 12" x 12"
SOLD Paper Doll Dreams, 2020, china marker, gesso, acrylic, color pencil on canvas, 24" x 24"
Paper Man about town, 2020, china marker, acrylic, digital print outs on paper, color pencil on canvas, 12" x 12"
SOLD Paper beats Storm, 2020, china marker, acrylic, color pencil on canvas, 12" x 12"
SOLD Paper Angel Garden, 2020, china marker, acrylic on canvas, 12" x 12"
SOLD Paper Goddess, 2020, china marker, acrylic on canvas, 12" x 12"
SOLD Solitary in Blue, 2020, oil pastel on canvas, 12" x 12"

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