Retablo and Ex Voto with a Contemporary Spin

Our six week studio (at the Contemporary Art Center of Virginia) exploring Retablo and Ex Voto (from a contemporary perspective) has come to its conclusion. First we learned the history and tradition of this Mexican folk art... how the retablo, which literally translates to 'behind the altar' originated with "Santero boxes" carried into Mexico by the Spanish Conquistadors of the 16th century. The history of the boxes is complex and by the 17th to the 19th centuries they were gradually transformed, passed from one generation to the next, until the art form morphed into charming pictorial images of saints helping to lift one through the difficulties and challenges of life.

In our studio the artists constructed a timeline that mapped out highs and lows of their own life experience. From there they chose a direction for creating a piece of work that celebrated a miracle or honored an issue that holds personal meaning. I wish that you could also hear the reading of each artist's statement, a required part of the studio, as of course they provide a way to deepen the engagement with the work...I trust that you'll get the feeling that a good and meaningful time was had by all.

Carol has a love affair with all things related to the Chesapeake Bay environment. From her living room window she has a lovely view of the Euclidean Plane where sky meets water and she spends time on the beach daily walking with Saffron, her Golden, collecting whatever catches her eye. Over the years Carol's taught herself how to incorporate seaweed into her art, dying fabrics and making handmade paper that is impregnated with the




weed's undulating patterns. Here she has incorporated found wood, double sided photos, fishing line and a Whelk's egg case to create a retablo about Being Home.

In the two pieces presented here she has incorporated the house shape; as icon that serves as a recurring source of inspiration for her work.

Over the years Patricia has had a dream time visitation. The dream contains imagery of marriage, lost children, an ominous well and a canine (alternating between wolf and dog). Here she has delved into the meaning and the symbolism of the well and brought it to a place where, when entered, one finds reflective gold representing what lies within.

Her medium is paper mache, paint mixed with sand that is layered and carved, leather, mirror, gold leaf and plastic still life bananas :-) embedded inside the feet of the well.

Terri tends to work large. Clay is her primary medium. For Contemporary Retablo she scaled down, choosing a cigar box as her 'Santero'. Her elements of personal significance include Christ, woman, child, temptation and the redemptive journey.
Terri employed bisque, metallic paints, embossed tin, photographic image transfer, cardboard collage and grommets to create her piece.

I wanted to share these pieces with you because it inspires me greatly to see what comes from working as a group, watching the play of common ground... in this case employing the tradition of Retablo/Ex Voto.

I designed the Retablo/ExVoto studio more than a decade ago. It is always such a treat to see what comes rising up to meet each individual in a personally relevant, completely 'in the moment' fashion.

May you find art in your heart.

Minds Wide Open: 'Peace Walk'

Recently I was invited to exhibit in 'Minds Wide Open' a celebration of Virginia women in the arts. The stipulation for the work, subtitled 'A Shoe of Her Own' is an odd one for me but I found it to be compelling to consider the ways in which we 'stand in our power', 'walk our path', 'stay grounded', etc.

Having an old pair of gardening clogs sitting on the floor of my studio brought an initial idea...first step: covering them with brown kraft paper then a few coats of gesso.

Then I took a clayboard, turned it around so that it became a shadow box. Laying the shoes within suggested a shrine.

Being a student of Tibetan Buddhism I have a collection of articles used in meditation practice.

I've used some of those articles and objects in this piece, including papering the back of the box with pages from a small booklet that my grandmother kept titled 'Essence of Buddhism', and draping the box with a Mala of ox bone beads that I've meditated with for over 15 years. The Mala has special meaning as it traveled with me to Nepal and Tibet where I also was immersed in the beauty of Tara.

In 2001 I was going through a challenging time while working with a group of 'at risk' youth. I asked Garchen Rinpoche for advice and he suggested that I "walk as Tara", goddess of protection and compassion.

During my meeting with Garchen I took the Green Tara and shortly thereafter the White Tara Empowerment's. The images inside the 'shoe shrines' are photocopies of the Green and White Tara's used in the meditation practice and given to me at those ceremonies....here inserted into the 'meditation cave' formed by the shoe. Between the shoes is the Prayer of Tara given to me by Garchen.

There are dogwood tree branches inserted through the box and threaded into the top of each shoe suggesting rooted peace. The branches are hung with 108 'Tara's tears' of compassion for the suffering of all sentient beings.

Lastly I wove 'Wind Horses' / Prayer Flags from Tibet into the branches, sending prayers out on the breeze for all living beings.

As I post the tree cutters are working feverishly next door and the sounds of the chain saws permeate the air.

I send out a prayer of peace to us all:

May all mother sentient beings

Boundless as the sky

Have happiness and the causes of happiness.

May they be liberated from suffering

And the causes of suffering.

May they never be separated from

The happiness that is free from suffering.

May they rest in equanimity

Free from attachment and aversion.

The Year of the Tiger: Iris the Cat

Iris the cat looking at herself.

Iris was feral...wild through and through and yet she allowed herself to share space in my life for 12 years.

The day she arrived, in the outstretched hands of a teenage neighbor, her eyes were still sealed shut and she fit snugly into the palm of my hand. She had been found where her mother had dropped her while moving her brood. By the time Iris's eyes opened she ruled the cottage including me and my guy, 2 Irish Setters, an Old English Sheepdog, and a coop full of Rhode Island Reds.

Never one to give away her power she used the singular "OW" for all communication rather than the obliging "MEOW" that connotes attachment.

Her favorite activity was snake hunting back in the fields behind the house. She would approach with the creature draped through her jaws calling "OW. OW" as she came closer to the door. Once she returned home with a full grown rabbit carried through her cat window and arranged like a Florentine still life outside the kitchen door.

I do not condone domestic cats marauding the landscape decimating the bird and small mammal population. I would not allow a domestic cat to do so. Iris was a wild being and I respected her origins and her chemistry and her genes. As a result I experienced the closest thing to living with a tiger, albeit in miniature, that I could imagine.

Today I celebrate that relationship and the many gifts it brought into my life. Thanks Iris, you were indeed a Rainbow Goddess spreading across the sky of my life.

Friday Mixed Media Gang

Last month a group of artist pals got together from 10-2 in the library meeting room to inspire one another and make some art.

It was so much fun that we gave ourselves a name 'The Mixed Media Gang' and decided to get together once a month with each of us taking a turn to introduce a technique or share materials.


Today we learned, from artist Michele Barnes, to work with gel monoprints. She has simplified the process from what you'll find at the link here making it very easy to begin printing as soon as the gel sets up. Shown here are just a few of the images as we were being shown the process and then began our own experiments.

Looks like the possibilities are limitless and it's a lot of fun to get a silk screen effect with such simple materials.

Have you tried this? Do you have any images to share?

Applause applause

I love a good opening...and this evenings launch of the Virgina Beach Institute of Art had pizazz to spare.

My contribution to the state of the art street level gallery is titled 'The Wish Fulfilling Tree'. It's an unstretched canvas tapestry measuring 60 x 84 inches... the largest piece on view and you know how it feels when you see a piece of your work in just the right setting?...yeah...the gallery is beautiful and she's at home there. And in such good company; artist's invited to exhibit contributed stellar works so there is a wonderful glow in the atmosphere.

Sizzle in the Studio

It's been quite the winter in an area where we rarely see the birdbath freeze.

There was a great collection of snowmen in the paper the other day and I thought I'd share this great image.

On the art front it's been sizzling... many great projects percolating in the studio and openings galore.

There was a wonderfully attended multi-gallery opening last Sunday at the new experimental Art Space in Pembroke Mall. My work is in my friend Debi Stadlin Studio where I have one large canvas tapestry titled 'Talking to Trees', a series of mantras and three painted benches.

Tonight my large canvas titled 'The Wish Fulfilling Tree' is being shown in the inaugural exhibition at the spanking new Art/Culinary Institute here in Virginia Beach. Tonight is also the opening where I am invited guest artist in Ohio at the Tri-C/Ursuline College Art Therapy graduations exhibit and 'Simplicity Symposium'.

The opening for Shooting Star Gallery is this Friday and also the opening in Brooklyn, New York for the Art House Sketchbook #4 Project.

Sunday I'll be presenting a talk and a workshop at Unity Fellowship in Newport News.

It's such fun to simply keep on keeping on...lovin' life.

Wren Wonderland continued

Click on photos to enlarge

As I sat working yesterday Fox appeared just outside my window. She came out of the culvert (the dark spot near her left front foot) three times, simply standing and surveying the most foreign of terrains...my guess would be that she's not seen a drop of snow ever before.