My Fate is not Your Fate

The figures in Cassandra Christensen Barney's paintings have the grace of angels, the enigmatic gazes of sphinxes and a history stretching back through millennia of mythology and literature. Inspired by portraiture of the sixteenth century, Barney has brought us such portraits as "Demetria," "Eve" and "Pandora." This piece, however, "My Fate is Not Your Fate," draws on the collective unconscious - what we all share and what is common to all of us. The two women in "My Fate is Not Your Fate" represent the fork in a lifelong road. As children, they may have shared similar experiences, but in adulthood their paths take different directions. Although they stand beside one another as they have for years, their postures indicate alternative possibilities. "We all may share many common threads but, says Barney, "we don't all have to want the same thing."