Some refer to them as glass and stone enchantments, others as tomb-like and unsettling, but to artist Christina Bothwell, her work is highly spiritual. Her translucent figures rising from their bodies evoke images of a butterfly emerging from its chrysalis, feeling mutually protected and secure but also fragile in spite of their hardy material. We first featured Bothwell’s works on our blog, and since then, she has gone on to explore more personal themes, dealing with the fear of her own mortality, as well as the fragility and temporary qualities of our bodies, versus the idea that we are more than just physical beings. “My subject matter includes babies, animals, and children as they embody the essence of vulnerability that is the underlying theme in my work. Currently I am exploring metamorphosis as a topic, and have been incorporating figures within figures in my pieces. Within each glass figure there is a smaller figure seen through the surface of the glass,” she says. Many works often feature the motif of a deer, inspired by an albino deer that Bothwell would see for years, “like seeing an angel,” in the wooded Pennsylvanian forest near her home. Newer figures like “Soul Companion”, portraying an ethereal “soul” overlooking the body of a young girl, was made based on the idea that our relationships continue even after the person we love dies. “I think of these pieces as souls, each being pregnant with their own potential, giving birth to new, improved versions of themselves.”
