Of Figure, Feather, and the Pursuit of a Fable | Encapsulating the Invisible Illness Experience through the Intersection of Painting and Allegory
My area of artistic inquiry explores how material, the natural world, and figurative manipulation can intersect to convey personal experiences of invisible illness. Through the frameworks of semiotics and self-portraiture, I examine how transformation and fragmentation of real-world subjects can reveal narratives that remain hidden to broader society.
‘We exist in the liminal spaces, the corner of one’s eye, as a creak in the ceiling the only thing a neighbour has ever known of you’ (Martin A, 2025)
My practice examines how paint, visual metaphor, and the body can converge to articulate what cannot be easily seen or spoken. The materials shift and erode, mirroring the fragility and persistence of the human form, while questioning both the conventions of painting and the impulse to turn away from what is unseen. Throughout my body of work, I weave allegories that translate lived experiences into visual fables, inviting audiences to linger in reflection on these realities that remain unacknowledged, overlooked, or misunderstood.
Alice Marie Martin is a multi-disciplinary fine artist based in Narrm/Melbourne, Australia, whose practice explores the lived experience of invisible and chronic illness through poetic visual narratives and self-portraiture. Her work, informed by her own diagnoses of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis and Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome in her youth, investigates themes of natural symbolism, and identity. With several years of exhibitions across Australia and works held in private collections both interstate and overseas, she continues to build an introspective dialogue around the un-represented narratives of chronic illness. Alongside this driving theme, Martin additionally explores a multitude of mediums, generates commission pieces, and more.
