Empowerment
Intro
Who runs the world? Girls!
What is the most difficult aspect in parenthood? My answer is; letting go! To let loose that little human being that you have given birth to, breastfed, nourished, tucked to bed. Taught, helped, loved.
And from the point-of-view of my daughter, Olivia, the most difficult part is growing up; integrating to this modern information society – where privacy is an unknown concept and the status of a youngster is defined by the social media and the number of followers. Against this background, the pains and difficulties of growing up can reach up to very different dimensions than it was the case with our generations.
These paintings are very personal, very dear to me and also painful. In the pictures I can see my own daughter; the flesh and blood of me and my husband.
Johanna Oras


Sorry we are closed
I have to feel all this in my mind
As if I’d walk through the life blind
I’m hitting walls that someone has built
No dreams, no direction, no guilt.
Queen of F*cking Everything
Where did all my dreams go?
Pink clouds the wind will blow
Satin lacings gone, me is woe.




Maleficent
This work was inspired – once again – by a movie of the same title, a modern interpretation of the Sleeping Beauty. But the main character this time is Maleficent and she made me to take a step into my own dark side; a place an artist occasionally is obliged to visit.
The dark side of womanhood is a place that especially men are afraid of. And when I visited there, I found my internal witch who has seen – and maybe, also experienced – some injustice. And the mystical character of that witchwoman made the myriad colors of my palette to glow in a new way.
The most important thing for an artist is light – and you can’t understand the true nature of light, if you’re not familiar with shadows. And I believe that the light always wins over darkness – both in my art and in life, in general.
Goddess
This painting is one of the last pieces of this series; in my personal opinion, one of the “first selfies” in the world – an updated version of a self portrait that I painted in 1992. My own daughter made me to return to my own growth story: the light brings the balance and gives us all hope. Always.

