In this exhibition the artist chose the pastel technique on black paper to put a highlight on reflecting women’s emotions. Respecting and protecting nature is her main fight but respect starts with respecting our own kin.
All the women in the exhibition are known by the artist or she has contacted them and opened a communication with them for the exhibition. She draws based on the photography she took of the women or from professional photos when she couldn’t meet directly with them. They are women she met through her journey and travel into the Atlantic, Arctic and Pacific mostly by sailboat or woman that simply inspired her. She chose different women to show the most diversity.
She put shadows on women’s faces to reflect that no matter how much they could be put aside in society or communities, and no matter of the many struggles they can cross as being a woman, their strength and intelligence will still shine, and they are still standing. She chose natural elements to make theses shadows also show the deep connection that women still have with nature, through their sensibilities.
Since the beginning of human beings women have mostly been the first victims of violence, as part of being a woman we have experienced it, witnessed it and heard too many stories about it that are still growing. In this exhibition the artist wants to open a new communication not based on the anger and sorrows but one coming from the women’s heart to yours. She wants you to feel what she feels looking at all these women and their stories, understand them better and to respect them better.
The artist higher hope is to transmit strength through the emotion of her art, to make people look into these women’s eyes and give them the power and courage to stand by for women when they need you to, in a world where it still an everyday fight and where some countries that used to be the first to offer women more freedom and right become regressive and go backward in terms of women’s rights.
A society always gets better for everyone when women’s rights are upheld and taken seriously. We are all in this together and we are stronger when we work together. Our reaction to an action is as important to the action in itself.
Equity will really start to exist when it is natural that women deserve the same human rights as every other human being and when they won’t have to prove it anymore. Because women shouldn’t have to prove or become extraordinary to deserve that respect and equity.
As we are all in it together, the artist chose to give 15% of all proceeds of this exhibition to the women’s association (Victoria Faulkner Center, Yukon Aboriginal Women’s Council, Mahbouba’s Girls).
You can contact her directly for any informations or purchase.
About the artist
Maeva Esteva was born in France and moved to the island of Huahine in French Polynesia at the age of 9. There she grew up in both French and Polynesian cultures and built a connection with both the natural world and human nature. With the Polynesian culture she developed her own personal style of art that evolved through the years.
She returns to France to study and graduated her master’s degree on sciences and adapted physical activities, specializes on obesity problem. She worked a little back in Polynesia as a sport teacher, living on her sailboat, but she finally left for traveling and moved to the Yukon 14 years ago, looking for more wilderness and cold weather. She lives a simple life in an off grid cabin she built on Kwanlin Dun and Ta’an Kwäch’än land where she can be surrounded by trees and wildlife of the northern boreal forests.
She started photography and drawing to be able to share her strong connection with nature with the world. As human beings get away from their natural environment and slowly forget what we are all a part of. She has made it her purpose to make people remember this connection through her art and show them that the wilderness is still there, it is all in how you look at it and, in the respect, you give back to it.
She still travels between the sea and the mountain occasionally to remember her connection with the sea. She sailed to Greenland in 2019 as part of crew member on a sailboat and they sailed across the Atlantic Ocean with her parents and brother in 2022. She also sailed into the northwest passage from Greenland to Kugluktuk, working on a boat. She like the Sea as it is like being in the middle of the bush, there is no hide out, no way to run so you must face yourself and face the unpredictable Nature.
She likes to work with pastels on black paper, but she also works more and more with watercolours. She mixes hyper realistic animal portraits with movement and a touch of dreams and innocence. She believes there is a lack of poetry in the new world and that people should keep dreaming and remind their self how the heart could speak better than the mouth. She like working with water as it is one natural element indispensable for life and it is always a challenge as water is unpredictable like nature, you can’t control everything, you can’t run against time, you can only accept the unknown and play with it.
The artist also has been involved in different work for women rights in some collective exhibitions, working on the side on her personal project for years in her spare time before this exhibition could finally happen.
