In these two pastel works, Maureen St. Vincent revisits the mythic figures of Lilith and Eve, reframing them not as cautionary tales, but as potent archetypes of feminine rebellion and erotic agency.
In traditional lore, Eve is cast as the first woman—tempted by the forbidden fruit and blamed for humanity’s fall. Lilith, from Jewish folklore, is believed to be Adam’s first wife, who refused to be subservient and was ultimately cast out and demonized. Where one is remembered as a transgressor and the other erased entirely, St. Vincent sees both as radical figures—Eve as a seeker of knowledge, and Lilith as a pioneer of defiance.
Rendered in lush soft pastel, these works blend humor, sensuality, and surrealism to reclaim their narratives. In Eve’s Apples, the fruit itself becomes a vulvar symbol—fertile, forbidden, and oddly animate. In Lilith and Eve, the slitted apples hint at bodily transformation, mutating between object and figure. The imagery is erotic without spectacle, strange yet familiar, steeped in the aesthetics of California’s theatrical landscape and Rococo decadence.
With a vibrant palette and a feminist re-reading of inherited myths, St. Vincent challenges traditional portrayals of women as either shameful or submissive. Her Lilith and Eve are not tragic—they’re curious, subversive, and full of unruly power.