“Fourteen Variations” is a body of work based on one idea and inspired by a single painting, titled “Great Spirit, Georgian Bay.” Drapell recast the great spirit being “Manitou”, as a dream-like silhouette of a giant female figure. The series conveys the overwhelming power of the universe, though Drapell had more in mind. Each painting references an important woman in history, among them Joan of Arc, Virginia Woolf, Gertrude Stein and Eleanor Roosevelt.

Fourteen Variations is an ambitious and provocative series produced by one of Canada’s greatest living abstract artists.