The Red Door – An Allegory on the Journey for Women’s Equality
Nancy White Cassidy, MFA
August 9, 2022 - Golden Apple Artist Residency, Session 2, Harrington, Maine

Introduction

When I first arrived at Golden Apple for my two-week residency, I noticed several interesting outdoor art installations. One of them was a red door, situated on the top of a small hill. It was hinged, so it could be opened or closed, and there was a path leading to it from either direction. It was closed when I first saw it. And it was the spark I needed for my series. I decided to use The Red Door as a jumping-off point for my series, for it symbolized a repression and closing-off of opportunities for females. In all six paintings of this series, a crescent moon is present in one form or another, representing female energy, along with copper, which is ‘often used to stimulate the flow of energies from the universe to’ one’s ‘spiritual being’.

I initially intended this series to be very personal, on how I feel my development as an artist, as a person, was impacted by my upbringing. There is no doubt it was. Having a strict Catholic upbringing, regularly enforced by my well-meaning but restrictive mother, cut me off from opportunities to learn socialization skills early on and squelched my desire for self-expression. Conformity was the rule in our home.  I fought against the restrictions. It wasn’t easy, for it took many years of missteps, therapy and heartache to become who I am today. I studied astrology and learned to listen to my intuition and to my spirit guides. Today, I feel I am an entirely different person.

I have always accepted the fact that my mother did the best she could with the hand she was dealt, which was often difficult and fraught with illness & lack of funds. She lived until 88, but never, I feel, lived up to her potential, which was great. Neither did her sisters (she came from a family of 12: 6 girls, 6 boys). Her eldest sister, Marie-Anne, was a highly skilled fashion designer and seamstress whose ambition was squelched early in her adult life when her well-meaning but very Catholic father refused to acknowledge her success during a public showing of her fashion designs in the city closest to her village. Instead he told her that all “glory and praise should be given to Our Lady, the Blessed Mother and none for ourselves”. Aunt Marie adored her father and never rebelled against this restriction but instead lived the rest of her life in a tenement apartment, doing seamstress work and teaching. She died penniless and unfulfilled. She never married.

I was determined to break this cycle. It has taken decades, but I’ve finally done it.

The Red Door

The first painting in the series (24” x 30”) depicts the Red Door perched on a coppery knoll overlooking a body of water. It is tightly closed. The colors beyond the door are dark and brooding, forbidding. A crescent moon appears in the turbulent sky, and is reflected in the water below. A thick row of dark trees lines the far end of the water, but there is an opening in that forested line, suggesting opportunities beyond.

The second, third and fourth paintings are small (8”x8”, below) and are vignettes of actions taken. The first small work depicts the Red Door is now slightly ajar. The moon appears in the sky, beckoning. Once through the door, the viewer (in the second small painting) may now see the moon reflected in the water below. It is surrounded by three quarters by the clouds reflected in the water, but to the right, a glow under the water appears. The third small painting shows a path of coppery rock rising from the water, with the reflection of the moon in the lower left hand corner acting as sort of a lasso to bring the rocks to the surface.

The fifth painting (18” x 24”, right) shows the Red Door, now fully opened, off the in distance, with the coppery rocky path now completely visible. The ethereal glow is brighter and a diaphanous mist is beginning to rise, with the reflection of the moon moving alongside the rising rocky path.

The last of the paintings (24” x 30”, below) shows us now through the opening in the barrier of dark trees. A glow from deep in the water also illuminates the copper trail, leading through the gossamer path to the crescent moon, the female energy.

The rocks that appear to help us across the forbidden watery landscape are representative of the work that women who preceded us have done. We are now able to cross over to the other side because of the sacrifices those women have made.

And that includes the work and sacrifices by my mother, my aunts, my grandmothers.