Pupal Stage 2 - Virginia Cohn Parkum, c. 1980s

In Pupal Stage 2, Virginia Cohn Parkum renders a fractured human figure in motion, its limbs thrust outward as if caught in the instant between flight and collapse. The body is constructed through urgent sweeps of blue and violet, the paint dragged and smeared in gestures that deny stability. Rather than describing anatomy, these strokes evoke velocity, panic, and the destabilizing force of pursuit. The figure’s forward thrust reads less as purposeful movement than as a desperate attempt to escape an unseen threat.

The pale ground functions as an exposed field of vulnerability, amplifying the sense of isolation. Against this stark openness, dark, blade-like marks intrude from the periphery, suggesting encroaching force or mechanisms of control. At the top of the composition, a violent burst of red punctures the cool palette. This intrusion reads unmistakably as blood—an index of bodily harm and a stark reminder of the cost exacted upon those caught within systems of violence. Smaller red traces scattered across the form reinforce the impression of injury sustained in flight.

Parkum’s use of blue dominates the figure, imbuing it with a spectral quality that suggests both bruising and emotional coldness. The paint’s translucency in some passages contrasts with dense, opaque strokes elsewhere, producing a tension between dissolution and material presence. This oscillation mirrors the precarious threshold implied by the title: a stage of transformation that is neither protection nor emergence, but exposure.

Within Parkum’s broader engagement with trauma and metamorphosis, Pupal Stage 2 reads as an image of survival under duress. The figure appears suspended between states—human and symbol, victim and witness—its movement propelled not toward freedom but away from systemic harm. The painting refuses resolution, instead preserving the moment of flight as an enduring testament to vulnerability and resistance.