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Midnight Stroll
Some nights, the mind produces scenes that feel more truthful than memory. I have mentioned before about how my relationship with dreams feels like that, like memories. Maybe this painting came to me in one those dream memories. A woman walking with a goose, quiet, unhurried, almost strangely serene. It was only later that I recognized the echo of an older story, the one where a swan descends upon a woman and claims her. But I didn’t want to inherit that myth. I wanted to invert it completely.
I wanted a scene where she leads.
Not with dominance, and not with fear, but with the same calm certainty found in the Strength card in the tarot, the woman who tames the animal within and without, not by force, but by presence, by grace. A woman who stands beside her instinct instead of being overtaken by it. A woman who rewrites the story simply by touching it gently.
In my painting, the woman is nude, but without seduction or spectacle. Her nudity feels incidental, like someone who has stepped out of a dream and hasn’t yet remembered the rules of daylight. There is no self-consciousness in her posture. Her attention is turned toward the goose, whose body leans into her leg with an awkward, earnest trust. This is not a disguised god descending from the sky; this is a creature with its own simple intelligence, its own vulnerability, its own desire to be guided.
The blue ribbon around its neck is the soft axis of the scene. It is not a leash, not a symbol of control, but a thread of connection, a ceremonial ribbon, almost tender. It binds nothing. Instead, it suggests a chosen bond, a pact. In a way, the ribbon is the new myth: the shift from domination to companionship, from intrusion to consent, from narrative violence to narrative care.
Midnight is the hour that makes this encounter possible. It is the loosening hour, when the mind is unguarded and the world withdraws just enough to let the private self emerge. The liminal witching hour. The woman walks barefoot across a surface that feels like both water and ground, a threshold between waking and dreaming. She is not searching for anything. She is not escaping anything. She is simply moving through the quiet of the night, which demands nothing and reveals only what we are willing to see.
Geese have always lived between realms: land, water, sky. They are migrants, messengers, bearers of instinctive direction. In myth, they are creatures of transition. Here, the goose stands in for the emotional animal within us: our anima, the instinct we often attempt to suppress, the intuition we neglect, the vulnerability we try to silence. Instead of pushing it away, the woman leads it beside her. She offers it breath, space, movement. She walks her own instinct through the dark, as though saying: I know you. Come with me.
This stroll becomes the emotional pivot of the painting. It is anti-dramatic in the most deliberate sense. There is no crisis, no divine encounter, no shattering event. Instead, the transformation arrives through steadiness. Through the slow, everyday miracle of being gentle with what once frightened us, gentle with the night. Through refusing the narratives that taught women to be acted upon rather than acting, to be vessels rather than guides.
The oval frame surrounding them functions like a protective chamber, the womb that is the night time, a memory-space, a boundary that separates the inner world from the outer. The radiating marks along its edges feel like both rays and thorns, both feathers and charms. They guard the scene the way the unconscious guards its most intimate images. Beyond the frame, the night expands into stars, scribbles, and quiet cosmologies. A map not meant to be interpreted, but lived.
Ultimately, The Midnight Stroll is an image of emotional stewardship. A reclamation of myth not by confrontation, but by rewriting its atmosphere. A woman taking her instinct for a walk, neither afraid of it nor ruled by it. A woman who knows that strength is not force, but presence.
This is not Leda.
This is the woman who comes after her.
The one who stays, who reassesses, who reclaims.
A woman who walks at midnight with her animal nature beside her, unafraid of the darkness, and unafraid of the stories that once tried to define her.
She is not led by the night.
She leads through it.
-Antonia xx
Add a wonderful accent to your living space with this poster that is sure to brighten any environment.
Printed on 200g natural art paper with a matte, uncoated finish and lightly textured surface, that ensures a rich and vibrant display of colors.
Sustainability is important to us, that is why our prints are made to order and not printed until the order is received. All orders are printed and shipped within 3 business days of receiving the order.
Fits standard sized frames. The frame is not included.
If your order has been damaged or lost within 1 month of shipment you are eligible for a complimentary reprint.
All sales are final and cannot be cancelled.
Please note that orders placed after 10 December cannot be guaranteed for delivery before the holidays.
Some nights, the mind produces scenes that feel more truthful than memory. I have mentioned before about how my relationship with dreams feels like that, like memories. Maybe this painting came to me in one those dream memories. A woman walking with a goose, quiet, unhurried, almost strangely serene. It was only later that I recognized the echo of an older story, the one where a swan descends upon a woman and claims her. But I didn’t want to inherit that myth. I wanted to invert it completely.
I wanted a scene where she leads.
Not with dominance, and not with fear, but with the same calm certainty found in the Strength card in the tarot, the woman who tames the animal within and without, not by force, but by presence, by grace. A woman who stands beside her instinct instead of being overtaken by it. A woman who rewrites the story simply by touching it gently.
In my painting, the woman is nude, but without seduction or spectacle. Her nudity feels incidental, like someone who has stepped out of a dream and hasn’t yet remembered the rules of daylight. There is no self-consciousness in her posture. Her attention is turned toward the goose, whose body leans into her leg with an awkward, earnest trust. This is not a disguised god descending from the sky; this is a creature with its own simple intelligence, its own vulnerability, its own desire to be guided.
The blue ribbon around its neck is the soft axis of the scene. It is not a leash, not a symbol of control, but a thread of connection, a ceremonial ribbon, almost tender. It binds nothing. Instead, it suggests a chosen bond, a pact. In a way, the ribbon is the new myth: the shift from domination to companionship, from intrusion to consent, from narrative violence to narrative care.
Midnight is the hour that makes this encounter possible. It is the loosening hour, when the mind is unguarded and the world withdraws just enough to let the private self emerge. The liminal witching hour. The woman walks barefoot across a surface that feels like both water and ground, a threshold between waking and dreaming. She is not searching for anything. She is not escaping anything. She is simply moving through the quiet of the night, which demands nothing and reveals only what we are willing to see.
Geese have always lived between realms: land, water, sky. They are migrants, messengers, bearers of instinctive direction. In myth, they are creatures of transition. Here, the goose stands in for the emotional animal within us: our anima, the instinct we often attempt to suppress, the intuition we neglect, the vulnerability we try to silence. Instead of pushing it away, the woman leads it beside her. She offers it breath, space, movement. She walks her own instinct through the dark, as though saying: I know you. Come with me.
This stroll becomes the emotional pivot of the painting. It is anti-dramatic in the most deliberate sense. There is no crisis, no divine encounter, no shattering event. Instead, the transformation arrives through steadiness. Through the slow, everyday miracle of being gentle with what once frightened us, gentle with the night. Through refusing the narratives that taught women to be acted upon rather than acting, to be vessels rather than guides.
The oval frame surrounding them functions like a protective chamber, the womb that is the night time, a memory-space, a boundary that separates the inner world from the outer. The radiating marks along its edges feel like both rays and thorns, both feathers and charms. They guard the scene the way the unconscious guards its most intimate images. Beyond the frame, the night expands into stars, scribbles, and quiet cosmologies. A map not meant to be interpreted, but lived.
Ultimately, The Midnight Stroll is an image of emotional stewardship. A reclamation of myth not by confrontation, but by rewriting its atmosphere. A woman taking her instinct for a walk, neither afraid of it nor ruled by it. A woman who knows that strength is not force, but presence.
This is not Leda.
This is the woman who comes after her.
The one who stays, who reassesses, who reclaims.
A woman who walks at midnight with her animal nature beside her, unafraid of the darkness, and unafraid of the stories that once tried to define her.
She is not led by the night.
She leads through it.
-Antonia xx
Add a wonderful accent to your living space with this poster that is sure to brighten any environment.
Printed on 200g natural art paper with a matte, uncoated finish and lightly textured surface, that ensures a rich and vibrant display of colors.
Sustainability is important to us, that is why our prints are made to order and not printed until the order is received. All orders are printed and shipped within 3 business days of receiving the order.
Fits standard sized frames. The frame is not included.
If your order has been damaged or lost within 1 month of shipment you are eligible for a complimentary reprint.
All sales are final and cannot be cancelled.
Please note that orders placed after 10 December cannot be guaranteed for delivery before the holidays.