"Woman's Torso" by Sonia Romero

Image posted with the artist's permission. More about Sonia Romero's artwork can be found at her website. Prints and other original works of fine art can be purchased from her online store She Rides the Lion.

Although it bears many similarities, this isn't a wood or linoleum cut. The textured background is a collograph made with acrylic paint on mat board that is later inked up and printed. The red part is a papercut that has also been inked up and printed. Because of the delicate nature of the papercut layer, Sonia Romero only made a limited edition of 5.

Though this image seems direct in its subject and composition, the longer I stare at it, the more it seems a complex mass of contradictions. At first glance I saw an elegant floral design laid over an organic, female shape. But the longer I stare, the more I find myself meditating on the perfect symmetry and ultimately the platonic oddness of it. Faces, eyes, and teeth begin to pop in and out from the petals and leaves. I feel I have discovered a keyhole that peers into another realm. One more ordered and certainly beautiful, but still dangerous.