Female power is the subject of the latest show at the Interim.

Four friends, Kendra Ezekiel, Sue Rebello, Caroline Troncossi and Alicia Tyson, have created new works.

But Ms Ezekiel said the theme of the show is not necessarily the female form which is featured throughout, but female creativity. ?Originally, Sue and Alicia were scheduled to exhibit together exploring the female form, while Caroline and I were scheduled to do a two-person show presenting our latest works,? she said.

?The shows were combined to feature the female as an artist and to highlight the diversity of our creativity.?

Ms Ezekiel, who is also the Interim Gallery manager, said the idea came while Ms Rebello was reading feminist literature and was inspired to do a series of artworks.

Ms Ezekiel said the female form in art is far more prominent than the idea of the female artist.

?Historically, males have dominated the visual arts field, whereas the female is more notable as having the role of muse,? she said.

?More recently we have examples of recognised women artists depicting the female form or even the male form. Having these examples and producing our own, adds to the possibilities for appreciating the human form and the artistic spirit.

?My own efforts are based on the silhouettes of a group of female friends. Silhouettes fascinate me as they are cast from a particular person, yet the end result is very much a fluid abstraction from the lines of the body.

?At first I was inspired to make a record of two of my friends who happen to be pregnant and then the idea grew to explore contrasting figures in various positions.?

The medium, she said, is: ?Paper?as usual.

?I am using white cotton rag and recycled watercolour paper to create a series of scrolls. The silhouettes were used as a basis for a relief study using only white pulp, texture and varying paper thickness to give the illusion of form.?

Ms Rebello said her work concentrates on the story of Eve in the book of Genesis from chapters two to four.

?The female form is secondary to my exploration of her story,? she said.

?The female form is present in the images I constructed, but only as a supporting aspect of the overall story.?

When asked what the inspiration was, she said: ?One of the first stories told to me as a child in school, and probably many others, is the Garden of Eden.

?I guess, to me, Eve has symbolically always been the ?first woman?, which is a powerful reference. Even scientists refer to Mitochondria Eve? who lived about 150,000 years ago and produced an unbroken line of daughters that continues today.?

She has used digital media to tell her story.

?I?ve always been interested in collage and depicting a story juxtaposing images that were initially unrelated,? said Ms Rebello. ?Some of the images that I?ve created are made up of ten to 12 different images. At first physically cutting images out of magazines and pasting them alongside each other with text was the only way I knew how to complete such a piece, but now that I?ve learned a bit about certain computer programmes the potential for seamless and provocative imagery has grown exponentially.?

Caroline (Tee) Troncossi?s works are figure drawings done in charcoal on watercolour paper.

?Charcoal on watercolour paper is my medium because I love the fluidity and dramatic effect one can gain when drawing the curves of the female form,? she said.

?My college work mostly consisted of abstract focus and I?ve been doing it my whole art career so am in need of a new route.?

Focusing on the female form is more available to her ?as I am a female and all art work one produces always has a bit of the self in it.

?I have been teaching Pilates for the last few years and so am moving towards using the human form in my work as I watch them move all day everyday,? said Miss Troncossi.

?To teach Pilates well you have to continuously be observing and analysing the clients movements to make sure they are doing it correctly. For these drawings I have had to use my own body as a rough guide as this is what I had to refer to for anatomy precision.

?I?m not saying they are self-portraits, but when I was drawing I would look at myself in the mirror to get knowledge of how this body part goes into that body part so that it wouldn?t look incorrect in the poses I chose to draw.?

Alicia Tyson said all of her work is organic and she draws and paints from live male and female models every week.

?I?m a woman and when I draw and paint from a female model, I get to explore and express my feelings and life experiences,? she said.

?When I draw and paint from a male model, I am coming from a place of desire, curiosity and lust usually.

?It?s all about our freedom and with that comes choices. My figures are also my landscapes, reflecting my ability to define my life and to create my own story.?

When asked what it all meant to her and how had she grown, Ms Tyson said: ?Art is not easy.

?Exhibiting is a separate and different battle. To exhibit is to expose oneself again and open the doors of critique.

?With each show I become braver and detach further from response. I have no choice, in being an artist. You are or you are not.?

Ms Tyson has been painting for 20 years and for the past ten years she has been exhibiting in Ontario and Bermuda.

?Always present is the essence of the soul, nature and life. I work intuitively, building gestural marks, colours and layers that seem to be in constant movement. My ideas are explored through simplicity, a variety of tools for my mark making and strong abstract imagery.

?I am inspired by my motivation to express basic human feelings and experiences related to life?s journey. The inter-woven images ... reflecting the nature of human entanglements, relationships and memory.?