New Work 2009

PRAYERS FOR THE DYING
These works are dedicated to my brother, Glenn.

I needed to do these pieces as "prayers". They speak better to me than words. I had these wonderful casts of hands, and also tiles imprinted with words and letters..........words, syllables, sentences are what we create the stories of our lives with. Before the words, the feelings, the belonging, the response, the one who experiences. Perhaps dying is shattering those "vessels" of words and ideas and constructs that have created the personae we have come to inhabit. Terra cotta pottery shards imprinted with words seemed like a perfect medium. Perhaps, leaving the words and vessels behind, at last, we fly.

Returning 2009

"Form is empty, emptiness is form.
Likewise, sensation, discrimination,
conditioning, and awareness are empty.
In this way, Shariputra, all things are emptiness;
they are without defining characteristics;
they are not born, they do not cease"

THE HEART SUTRA

The Heart Sutra

Somewhere within the "hoop" of who we are, within the space between the child and the old man the beginning place and the ending place.........in the center is the heart. I think above all that is where our "soul making" has gone on.

Holy Mother Take My Hand (2009)

Reliquary

This Reliquary has two potent symbols of transformation - a feather left behind from the flight of a Phoenix, and the skin of a snake.

Dream Weaver 2009

.

.Of life's Spring
may we drink deep
and awake to dream
and die to sleep

and dreaming
weave another form
a shining thread
of life reborn

~~Starhawk
"The Weaver Song" from the Spiral Dance

Spider Woman's Hands 2007 - 2009

In 2007 it was my privilege to have a fellowship at the Alden Dow Creativity Center at Northwood University in Michigan, to develop "Hands of the Spider Woman" - a community arts project exploring the Native American creation story of the Spider Woman. I offer my gratitude as well to my collaborator Kathy Space, and the many people in the community of Midland who participated.

When the Icons each participant created were exhibited, all were united with a "thread" that wove between them, and beyond the exhibit; Spider Woman's thread, and our hands, weaving together.

Community Wall, Midland Arts Center

 

 

"Tse Che Nako, Thought-Woman Spinning the World into Being" (2007)

I also want to thank the Puffin Foundation for further support and the Midland Center for the Arts for our exhibit.

In 2008 the project continued at the Creative Spirit Center, also in Michigan. In 2009, I continued exploring the theme as a resident artist at the Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C. 

The Artist's Oracular Cookbook

~Recipes for the Muse ~

"Art is food for the Soul. Bon Appetit."

In the summer of 2005 I was blessed with a residency at the Artist's Enclave at IPark.

At the time, I was playing with the idea of
Divination cards. It's an IPark tradition for each resident to contribute a special "cocktail recipe" when they leave. And so, in the course of that magical summer, The Artist's Oracular Cook Book became my contribution.

To learn more about the book,

visit yellow leaf press