“SEVEN REALMS. A Draft for Renewal”

SEVEN REALMS. A DRAFT FOR RENEWAL, 2018

This multidisciplinary project began in 2018, initiated by the Severa Collective (María Eva Russo & me, Lidia de Pedro).

It was inspired by the Seven Realms of Art introduced in Anne O. Nomis’ book The History & Arts of the Dominatrix, the first illustrated book on Dominatrices from a female-dominant perspective. Anne O. Nomis supported the project, collaborating with her advice and expertise.

The project’s resulting work was exhibited in 2020, amid the coronavirus pandemic, at Factoría de Arte y Desarrollo in Madrid. The exhibition was curated by Victoria Cantos.

Through this project, we sought to investigate and examine the intricate intersections of gender, sex, and power.

Together, these works formed a hypnagogic journey through the Seven Realm Arts of the Dominatrix, inviting the viewer to create their own narratives and path.

The exhibition features my paintings, screenprints, engravings, and ceramics.

María Eva Russo contributed a series of flags made under the motto “The Flag as a Statement of Existence,” which aimed to elevate the feminine archetype of the Dominatrix through her arts and challenge the binary gender roles of our current belief system.

The Seven Realms Arts of the Dominatrix

R I The Art of the Sublime and Powerful Woman

R II The Art of Lowering the Man to Submission

R III The Art of Bondage, Entrapment and Enclosure

R IV The Art of Discipline, Training and Punishment

R V The Art of the Bodily and the ‘Out-of-Body’

R VI The Art of Cross-Dressing and Subversion

R VII The Art of Fetish and Fantasy

Everyone reflects everyone.

We are in a big reflection
of a mirror called time,
and
all selves develop from there.

Silkscreens:

Gold, red and black with watercolor hand finishing on Somerset cream paper, 300 gsm, 56 cm by 76 cm. Signed Limited Editions.

Mixed media paintings:

Clay, graphite, wax, tree bark, spirulina, latex, acrylics, watercolors, inks, glass paint, blood and varnish on Somerset cream paper, 300 gsm – 56 cm x 76 cm and 76 cm x 112 cm. Unique pieces

Intaglio prints:

Drypoint, etching and aquatint, each measuring 40 cm by 25.8 cm. Signed Limited Editions.

ET QUI TOLLIS MENTIS ABERRATIONES

She arrives,
a shadowed figure,
mending the fractures
of the mind.

R I The Art of the Sublime and Powerful Woman

She breaks, She commands, She rebuilds…

To destroy, to build up,
to tear out and to make high,
to turn a man into a woman
and a woman into a man.

WE ARE YOURS!

The doors are thrown wide open…
ecstasy, orgiastic pleasure, and
the cries of the devoted resound.

I will raise a lament for you…
Oh, queen of the universe,
your people bewail you
in the shadowed,
hidden places of their hearts.

Seal of Inanna, 2350-2150 BCE

A shackle
that dominates
even gods,
Turning fear into wonder,
reshaping the unknown.

“Reward for a Virtuous Soul”

She descends
into darkness
and
vulnerability,
for only
through surrender can
she reclaim a more potent sense of self.
In her journey,
she embodies beauty,
merging death with
the promise of rebirth
and
renewed power.

Her return from the underworld
reflects resilience
and
transformation,
capturing the essence of the sublime,
a force that endures
and
triumphs
over
the greatest of trials.