How art can reflect the beauty of our anger
TL;DR:
I asked what women in my community wanted to yell about, which then informed my creation of the painting, “Liberated”. I share my process below.
Unlike the negative stereotypes, there is beauty in the anger of these women, which is anchored on justice, love and community.
It’s OK to be angry… and I believe that our anger needs a creative voice so that it can be (as Thich Nhat Hanh encouraged) compost for our garden.
There are reasons to be angry
A screaming woman defies acceptable gender norms. We’re conditioned to suppress our anger, an apparently unfeminine emotion. Gender socialisation has not served men well either, who are conditioned towards physical expression and disconnect from their inner world (ibid.).
Yet there are good reasons to be angry. The state-sanctioned imprisoning and starvation of children. Increasing invisibility with aging. Continual black deaths in custody. Family blind-eyes to childhood abuse because “he’s not like that”. A health system stuck in a sick vortex. Institutionalised misogyny and racism, and their resulting professional and social boxes. The destruction of Country and the industrialised, normalised violence towards vulnerable communities (including non-human animals) this entails… I could go on, and perhaps you have some reasons you’d like to share in the comments?
For me, when I hear a story of violence, injustice or entitlement, anger rises in me. I can feel it in my body and in my emotions. Yet women are often boxed into pleasant, palatable boxes that have no space for our anger or voices. This is even more so the case for Indigenous women and women of colour, who have every reason to be angry yet are not permitted to. Gosh, that makes me angry.
So where does the yell come in?
Yelling can accompany anger, which you might know from personal experience. Sometimes yelling is an attempt to be heard; a familiar experience for many women often after chronic invisibilisation and silencing. That need to be heard can be a matter of life and death too, yet we can be brushed off, even by those supposedly responsible to ‘protect’ us… often with irrevocable consequences.
So, I was curious what it is that women in my orbit want to yell about. I see a power in that part of our voice that is so often squashed and contained (1). And I see beauty and indignation in our anger, despite the “unpleasant” label it typically bears. What better way to explore this “ugly” beauty than through art?
For my approach, I took inspiration from artist Deborah Wood. Wood put up screaming heads in Hosier Lane and asked women going past what they would like to yell about; she then collaged their words coming out of the screaming mouth. I love the way Wood creates in socially-informed ways while leveraging the freedom of invisibility to get away with “inappropriate” things that challenge stereotypes.
What did these women want to yell about?
In December 2024, I took to my stories on Facebook and Instagram, as well as inviting previous coaching clients, with the question, “What do you want to yell about?”, letting them know their words would inform my next painting.
Below are some of their responses, which on the most part reflected anger…
How lying and being dishonest for political, social and financial gain have been so normalised at the highest and lowest levels of society. #civilisationhaspeaked … This amorality is catching and depressing.
Government’s bullshit lies to bring in new social media laws and youth justice laws. Where is the swift action about daycare workers charged as the worst pedophile in history? Failing our most vulnerable again.
THE PATRIARCHY
Oligarchs about to run the USA
Religious forcing of people to be a soldier and repression of women
The utterly unconscious lack of embodied reasoning in our society: words, not objects. The brain is not the mind, intentions and plans are not an alternative for actual activity, pressing buttons is a pathetic substitute for FUN.
God is not the colonised idea we seem to have of him - that performance-anchored, do-as-you-would-be-done-by (so don’t screw up!), precocious BRAT/PIG/HAIR-FLICKER. This blatant INVENTION is the worst of all thieves.
One person’s yell reflected accomplishment and joy:
I’d like to yell loudly that I (achievement deleted to deidentify) - TRIUMPH!!!
How did I creatively respond?
I took to a freshly primed canvas and began to etch out their words, stretched across the open space using nature’s materials from the Kombumerri country where I live. Acrylic inks, with their fluid nature, dribbled anger and emotions through the words, creating layers of marks. At times I would scrape over with heavy, large movements to reflect the power and heart of their words - and my own anger, too.
Their responses began to merge into mine, and I collaged images and words that resonated with what had been shared. I incorporated all kinds of images - reflecting the disappeared in Argentina, advocacy efforts for justice and liberation, of wellness propaganda, and even collage pieces I had created myself and painted earlier.
Watch a time lapse of me creating this stage of the painting (please bare with the audio quality! And watch within YouTube to access subtitles):
What comes after the yell?
Citing bell hooks and Thich Nhat Hanh, Watego taught me that it helps to connect with anger as compost for my/our garden. I knew more needed to come, to not stay in the yell. How could this anger become our garden compost?
I went back to the women and asked, “What comes after the yell? How do you rise up from what you’re yelling about?”
Themes of rest, nature and compassion were evident, as some of the responses show:
Rest, rest, rest
Pace
Self-care
Look at nature and learn to appreciate peace, calm and positivity
When given a chance to choose between anger and compassion, pick compassion
I wrote their words onto the existing layers, the words merging into a creation that became more than me alone. The voices of these women embedded, what did the painting want to become?
Watch a time lapse of me creating the layers of what comes after the yell:
I listened, responded, mark by mark, searching until her shape became clear to me. I then marked out the shape with charcoal and continued to layer collage and a flow of inks, until she emerged… Her silhouette was a shape of liberation, of freedom from the concerns that drove the anger, and of love for our communities.
Watch a time lapse of me creating the final stage:
The beauty of our anger is right here, in this painting. I’ve called this work, “Liberated”.
Here is the final piece that holds the entire process shared above: “Liberated”. 2025. Mixed media on canvas. 24 × 30 inch.
What’s next for this process?
The colours I used for this painting became palette 7 in my collaboration with mum (Jennie Bell) for our exhibition, “Let Colour Speak”. Mum has since created her painting response to Palette 7. You can see both of our paintings in person at our exhibition 1-12 October, Robina Art Gallery and we hope you can join us for our ‘meet the artists’ event on 3 October!
As for my process to create this painting, I would like to refine it so that I can weave more dialogical processes into my painting practice, in a way that centres voices and stories typically at the margins. More substantially, I’ve been asking what my painting practice would look like with an overtly decolonial agenda. How might my art practice create space and relationship with Indigenous people and agendas here, and co-create something with shared benefit? How might my painting practice honour the past, present and future through reciprocity and respect, while challenging the hegemonic norms here on Kombumerri country? I know that I have more relationships to build here and that I’m only just beginning to unpack these questions as a Gold Coast-based artist…
What about you? What’s coming next for you in your creative practice? Has my process of creating “Liberated” inspired a new angle or project for you? Please share below!
Footnotes
(1) In my coaching work, I also see a pattern of women denying or delaying listening to their inner voice and desires, often until later in their life.
Acknowledgements
With thanks to the women who shared their responses to my questions. Not all of us can speak publicly about our rage but some the women who contributed were able and agreed to be acknowledged by name: Jade Robertson, Sanaz Komijani, Kylee McDonagh, Usha Rao and Jacqueline Meijer-Irons.
I’d also like to acknowledge Tal Fitzpatrick’s project, Quietly Seething. While Fitzpatrick’s project is different in materials, timeline and approach - and much larger scale! - her work has been making space for feminine rage on the Gold Coast and beyond, for some time. Fitzpatrick’s socially engaged practice inspires me and I am grateful for the way she honours and lifts diverse voices.
Thanks also to the City of Gold Coast Council for supporting my art show, Let Colour Speak. The Arts Development Fund is a City of Gold Coast Council fund that supports the Gold Coast’s creative community by fostering professional pathways and skills development, contributing to our city’s vibrant lifestyle.
I am committed to honouring the wellbeing, creativity and leadership of every person. If I can help you or your team with this journey please reach out by contacting me here. Learn more about my coaching services here and workshops and facilitation here.