In Constanze Waegers paintings she brings together physical parts and immaterial concepts. Even though the eye sees something immediate, it is not truly what is seen. It is not the body, nor the color. Not the bird or the plant. It is an immaterial concept – a feeling.

In this particular show, Ontology, the study of becoming, Constanze Waeger desires to go into our true potential. The potential of feeling, thought and growth into a new version of ourselves. A process that can be painful, but as we all know nothing worthwhile comes easy.

To Constance painting is a meditative state. A way of closing the world off and when she manage to get into that state, that is when the works really becomes something. She paints emotions that are quite deep within her, emotions she is unaware us in the reality of life. It is feelings that she is trying to suppress, and then her and carries them out for her. There is some sort of harmony in melancholy, a very beautiful place where the fragile meets the dark. Darkness is protective space and in some ways the light is the one to be feared. One has to be ready before one steps into the light. Everything starts with darkness. The seed for the plant starts underground, the baby stays in the womb until its ready to step into the light. Her work is very much about metamorphosis of development.

Her works are given the opportunity to grow. They all go through what she calls a teenage state where they are quite awkward and not really aware of their role in the world yet. When they are done, she leaves them be for a while and it is not until sometime after it suddenly becomes clear her “Aha. That is what that was. That is who she is. That is what she is saying”.

In Constans Waegers work you see past the skin, below the surface and you look into the kind of growth that is happening from within. It is all part of the metamorphosis. All those things one might be adding or subtracting, shetting or growing are an addition to our true self.

The women she paints stands alone. Yet she sees them as heroes that are going to continue to rise up, develop and grow, regardless of their surroundings.