As I mentioned yesterday, I have finished my shrine for Ocean Mother, or Yemaya. Unlike other shrines I have made, I do not know who this one “belongs” to. So, I am selling it via my Etsy store, Nine Ravens Studio.
If you know someone who is called to the Ocean, to Yemaya in her many names, please forward this link to them or consider purchasing the shrine as a gift. Of course, that person could also be you.
Every time I look at this one I hear the phrase, “and she’s riding a stairway to heaven.” Although I just looked up the lyrics and see that “riding” should be “buying,” which changes the whole meaning.
I’m not giving this a title yet, but I initially thought of it as “Drowning in Shallow Water.” The image intrigues me and scares me at the same time.
Brash is a stealth poet who writes short poems in response to the visual art at Artomatic. I have been secretly hoping to come around the corner and find a Brash poem on my wall for the last few weeks. This last weekend, my secret desire came true.
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First Step Of The Journey To Angela Raincatcher’s Chokmah: The Old Man’s Crazy Idea You do not need to be frightened (c) BRASH, May 30, 2008 |
What would happen if the silvery moon fell in love with the trees?
Last October, I had a commission to create an altar shrine for a woman previously unknown to me. This was my first time working on such a project for someone who I did not have a relationship with. And it felt strange, and took a long time to move from concept to completion.
In our initial phone conversation, she told me that her spiritual practice really focused on nature, trees, and the moon, but not in any personified way. We talked a while about how she interacted with the trees in the light of the moon and what that meant to her.
The interior digital collage came easy. I got that done in about a month from that initial call. The exterior of the box was more difficult from a technical standpoint. I wanted to do a line drawing in silver of tree roots in the soil. But nothing came out looking quite right — just a bunch of squiggly lines. Then I stumbled upon a picture of a seedling showing the burst seed casing and the root system.
Then the box sat for months. It seemed to mock me as I could think of nothing for the interior left side. Every half baked idea fell flat. I felt guilty that I could not get this shrine done as winter moved into spring. Some days I even avoided going into my studio.
Then about a week ago, it hit me! The seed casing on the exterior looked like a crescent moon. The seedling could be the silvery love child produced by the union of the tree and moon in the collage. And what could be better for a shrine than “relics” of that union — silvered branches!
I worried that she would not like the piece, that it would not capture what she wanted at all. It had taken so much mental and spiritual labor to get this piece born — and I wasn’t sure if it was good enough. With dread in my stomach, I sent her pictures and got a quick reply.
The tree with the moon could have pulled right from my mind - it’s exactly the way I “see” trees at night … my breath caught in my throat and I got a bit weepy to see it with my physical eyes.
I’m going to call that success.
I’ve been playing with this image for the last couple of days. It is not what I set out to create, but here she is. And she perfectly encapsulates how I am feeling right now. I don’t have the words to describe either the image or the emotions. But the word “resonance” comes to mind.
If the unconscious speaks to us in images, this is what mine has said to me today.
From the artdc.org web site:
Artomatic is viral. With over 1,000 artists, this high-energy, non-stop event is a one-stop for who’s who, who’s next, and who just wants to have fun with their art in the DC area. Just type “Artomatic 2008″ into any search field and hit enter. How many pages of links do you get? This writer can report 75 pages referencing Artomatic. That’s a lot by any standard. Artomatic news can be found all over the Internet from every conceivable outlet - from participating artists websites to friends of participating artists, to news outlets, and, bloggers. Yes, Bloggers.
The bloggers and artists who help spread Artomatic news via their websites and online journals are an integral part of its success. As a thank you for your continued help spreading the Artomatic virus, we have invited a diverse group of visual artists to speak about their current Artomatic show on Artomatic’s Blogger Night.
Join us for a mini-tour and artist discussion to learn about the inspiration behind their exhibits, from the artists, themselves. Then, WRITE!
Help keep the Artomatic virus contagious. Write about your thoughts and experiences at Artomatic - good or bad. Because, quite frankly, we don’t feel 75 pages of links is enough.
Artomatic’s Blogger Night
Saturday, May 17, 2008
7-9pm
Pizza! courtesy of Uno’s at Union Station
Exact meet-up location within Artomatic to be announced later this week
Participating Artists:
Erin Antognoli [9NW A4]
Michael Auger [8NW A4]
Jennifer Beinhacker [12SW A5]
Angela Raincatcher [8SW A7]
Kerri Sheehan [7NE C3]
Jack Whitsitt [8SE D6]
For more information, contact Angela Kleis at akleis@gmail.com or 703-963-6771.
Hope to see you there!
I am showing my art for the first time publicly. I will be exhibiting my Qabalah series. I am excited and nervous by turns. Wish me luck!
What is Artomatic, you ask?
Held regularly since 1999, Artomatic is the Washington, D.C., area’s one-of-a-kind multimedia event, involving hundreds of regional artists, performers and volunteers. The free event is an arts extravaganza, featuring paintings, sculpture, photography, music, theater, poetry, dance and workshops. The 2008 event is being held May 9-June 15 in the Washington, D.C., NoMa neighborhood.
It is free to get in and the hours are: Wednesdays and Thursdays, 5:00pm - 10:00pm; Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays, Noon to 2:00am; Closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.
The address is Capitol Plaza I 1200 First Street, NE (1st and M Streets NE), Washington, DC 20002. Metro: Red Line, New York Ave., M St exit.
More information at www.artomatic.org.
My dear friend Art Drauglis is an accomplished woodworker who builds fun, funky furniture, such as the “Monster Cabinet” shown here. Today he was featured in DC’s Daily Candy. Go check him out! Please consider him if you are in the market for custom hand-worked furniture, and recommend him to your friends.
For my husband’s birthday, I made him a “universal manifestation box.”
The outside is painted in six colors representing the four classical elements of Air, Earth, Fire, and Water, and the energies of the starry Heavens and deep Chaos. Each side has a sigil painted in gold. The interior of the box is painted black with the symbols for the Sun, Earth, the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn in silver.
The “universal manifestation box” is a representational model of the universe in microcosm. The exterior elements and internal planets are paired as polarizing opposites:
The box is magically charged in circle with all the energies of the universe brought to bear and set into the box. When not “active,” the box contains a piece of hematite to ground it. To use the box, one merely needs to place a symbol, picture, or written intention in the box, and activate it.
Woo-woo? Sure. But these kinds of things seem to work for me. So what could I do but offer the universe to the one I love?
The final three…
Kether: Beginner’s Mind
Da’ath: Abyss of Meaning
Chesed: Merciful Gifts
Technorati Tags: digital collage, sacred art, qabala
