Michelle by Rebecca Dzartov in Melbourne

2022, 23 x 23 inches (60 x 60 cm), Oil, Acrylic & Recycled Plastic on canvas. “Michelle” is the second part of my series inspired by qualities. A representation of ‘Power’: “the ability to act or produce an effect.” A caramel babe with long blonde hair has her face sliced in thirds. With a halo of eyes, she stabs through the center of a rose. Alongside some dandelions and a pair of peony and lily-inspired flowers. Surrounded by a filigree border and a light blue glow radiating from an anatomical human heart. It’s safe to say she hates gardening and has a passion for fencing. Slicing up Michelle’s face represents how temporary our physical world is. The heart and its glow represent one of my favorite Proverbs (4:23) “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” Denying our flesh every day and letting our spirit lead has a lot to do with the posture of our hearts I find. The flowers for example, on one end of the spectrum you could help them grow or on the other end you could help them die, it’s up to you. Michelle’s earrings, headband, and dots on the sword and in the background are made from recycled plastic. A major element of this painting is Michelle’s long flowing hair greatly inspired by a story of apparent studies conducted during the Vietnam War with Native American Indian trackers. The story goes; “During the War in Vietnam, the American military searched for scouts and trackers. They were seeking talented, young men that could steer their way in stealth across the enemy terrain without ever being noticed. Their quest was extremely important which is why the Special Forces in the war department assigned undercover specialists to comb American Indian Reservations for such candidates, and where they found countless brave young men who were “born” for the task. After they had been recruited, they carefully recorded their skills and talents and rapidly found that their new Native American recruits were more than adequate for the task. After the young Native Americans were recruited, and after going through countless rituals of joining the army, the skills, and talents that were present, and specific to them seemed to vanish. The army started exploring for answers and returned to some of the Native American elders who responded when their young men received the mandatory haircut after joining the military, they could no longer “sense” the way they did before. Their almost supernatural abilities—like their ‘otherworldly’ intuition—disappeared. After more recruits were selected from different Native American tribes, they performed tests in order to see what was going on, and if “the length of hair” had anything to do with their capabilities. After recruits were gathered, the military decided to let some of them keep their long hair and submitted them to different tests to study the phenomenon. After several tests where “Native American trackers” with long hair raced against others who had their hair cut, military experts found how Native American trackers with longer hair had access to something like a ‘sixth sense,’ and their intuition seemed to be much more reliable when compared to men with short hair.” “Here is a Typical Test: The recruit is sleeping out in the woods. An armed ‘enemy’ approaches the sleeping man. The long-haired man is awakened out of his sleep by a strong sense of danger and gets away long before the enemy is close, long before any sounds from the approaching enemy are audible. In another version of this test the long-haired man senses an approach and somehow intuits that the enemy will perform a physical attack. He follows his ‘sixth sense’ and stays still, pretending to be sleeping, but quickly grabs the attacker and ‘kills’ him as the attacker reaches down to strangle him. This same man, after having passed these and other tests, then received a military haircut and consistently failed these tests and many other tests that he had previously passed. So the document recommended that all Indian trackers be exempt from military haircuts. In fact, it required that trackers keep their hair long.” “Maybe, after all, there is a reason as to why this tradition is still alive in the 21st century, and maybe there is some truth to when the ancient say how our hair is an extension of the soul, an extension that helps us sense what we could not with shorter hair.” Whether this story is true or not it is something interesting to think about. It could explain motherly instincts and why girls are labelled generally more sensitive than men. We do know that; 1. Native Americans did fight in the Vietnam war, yet there are no accounts of units composed of long-haired Native American soldiers. 2. The New England Journal of Medicine claims that hair both emits and receives electromagnetic signals to and from the brain. 3. Kirlian photography exists. 4. Different cultures and religions saw/see hair as a sign of strength. Maybe the story of Samson & Delilah makes more sense taking this into consideration? Source: eductaeinspirechange.org – “Hair is an extension of the nervous system – Why Native American Indians kept their hair long” sott.net – “The truth about hair and why Indians would keep their hair long”