ebb+flow studio fine art: 1999 Santa Monica to Santa Fe

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

1999 Santa Monica to Santa Fe

I made a lot of work in 1999 that I still really like. I made a series of paintings early in the year that I started out thinking of as the Pearl series, but they were all subsequently renamed. I then did a transitional series, not shown here, that I based in Gallup/Window Rock and then the Santa Fe Series. It's amazing to me when I see them all together how the light and colors change as I migrate from Santa Monica through Gallup to Santa Fe. Here are some of the Santa Monica pieces and some of the (Untitled) Santa Fe pieces:

Starry Night

Through the Light (of Change)

Sea Monster

Blue

Continuation

(detail)

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About My Work

I've been exploring this body of work since 1997. It arose conceptually from my notion of the house as a metaphor for female experience, with walls as a metaphor for the body that contains that experience. Many of the symbols that I use are derived from the interior (or female) space of ancient cave sites; the materials I use are for modern house building; wood panels and topping compound, or drywall mud. Topping compound re-wets, so the acrylic washes that I use to paint the symbols get absorbed and contained, rather than sitting on the surface as does paint typically. With this last series, Interstitial Revelations, I began to paint oil directly into the topping compound. I made this decision based on my research into adobe floors for my new house. The adobe mud is sealed/cured with linseed oil, the same oil as from which oil paint is made.

I discovered many of these symbols in the work of the late UCLA archeologist, Marija Gimbutas, author of the books Language of the Goddess, Civilization of the Goddess, and Goddesses and Gods of Old Europe, among others. While some of the symbols are said to be general representations of woman, others are specifically stylized vulvas, the site from which life emerges. What connects me spiritually to this work is the fact that ancient people who worshipped the goddess saw women, and specifically the vulva as sacred, honored and respected. Learning this was a turning point in my life and represents the point at which I had my first positive model of woman. Author Riane Eisler's books The Chalice and the Blade and Sacred Pleasure also had a huge impact on my life and work. Learning that ancient cultures were ordered on the principle of partnership rather than domination and submission (as we now order our culture) was particularly profound.

I layer symbols that represent inter-connectedness and partnership with symbols that represent isolation and separation. I try to find a visual balance, as a metaphor for the balance we must find in our lives as individuals who are intimately connected to everything around us. Over time the symbols have morphed and I have added other symbols of my own in order to further explore various aspects of these ideas and my connection to them.

ebb+flow studio fine art

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

1999 Santa Monica to Santa Fe

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About My Work

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