The Discipline of Grace

Grace, here, is not a gift.

It is a behavior learned early and reinforced often.

This collection examines bodies shaped by expectation — movement regulated, expression corrected, silence rewarded. The figures remain elegant not because they are free, but because they have learned the cost of resistance.

Strings are not hidden. Authority is not named.

The system does not need to announce itself to function.

Mirrors appear without reassurance. Gestures repeat until they feel natural. Beauty becomes a language spoken fluently enough to conceal what it replaces.

This is not performance.

It is conditioning.

Within the Tavern, these works exist as records of compliance — moments where survival learned to look like poise. They do not resolve. They do not rebel.

They endure.

Heather Lynn Donovan 

-Always by candlelight