Lauren Raine MFA

The Masks of the Goddess 2012 - Kickstarter!

2012-01-20T14:11:00.000-08:00

Mana Young and Cast, Black Box Theatre, Oakland (2002)

Fundraising for "The Masks of the Goddess" - a new collection

Launched via Kickstarter 1/25/2012.

Project URL: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/166451574/the-masks-of-the-goddess-mythic-masks-and-theatre

About the Project:

Mythology is at the roots of our culture, stories that inspire and teach. We have endless renditions of war god myths - but few know the universal, multi-cultural myths of the Goddess, the "faces of feminine dieties". How is the "Descent of Inanna" important? Who was Sedna? These ancient yet very contemporary stories, and many others, are deeply meaningful as we create a new mythology for our time: stories that empower women and imagine sacred ways of living in Mother Earth.

For almost 10 years the Masks of the Goddess were brought to life by dancers, storytellers, and teachers throughout the U.S. The project ended in 2008, but ever since then I've received so many requests for masks that this year (2012) I've begun work on a new collection, which will be held in trust for all communities to use in the future. Monies raised through Kickstarter in the next 6 weeks, if we're able to meet our goals, will also fund the "inaugural performance" of the new collection at the 2012 Women and Mythology Conference in San Francisco, produced and directed by author and ritualist Macha NightMare. As she describes the performance,

"Around the world 'spirits of place' have revealed themselves to us, encounters that generated stories told over the ages. With masks especially created for this event, we propose a ritual performance that offers all celebrants encounters with these goddesses as they have been known in the past and as they exist today."

At "The Spiral Dance" (2006) (Courtesy San Francisco Chronicle

Thank you so much for your encouragement and support.
I believe this new collection will travel far in the years to come, "dancing the Goddess home" with mythic theater.

About me:

After studying mask traditions in Bali, I was inspired to create a collection of contemporary "Temple Masks". My MFA is from the University of Arizona, and I've taught mask arts at Kripalu Institute, the Glastonbury Goddess Conference, and many other venues. In 2007 I had a fellowship at the Alden Dow Creativity Center for my project about "Grandmother Spider Woman", the Native American Creatrix, in a community arts project, and in 2009 I was resident artist at Wesley Theological Institute where I continued with "Weavers". She keeps spinning stories, and I keep listening.....

to see my website, visit: http://www.rainewalker.com/masksofgoddess.htm

I'm also in Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lauren_Raine

Lauren

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~ SUPPORTERS REWARDS ~

Estimated Shipping date: May 2012
Shipping is by first class or priority mail

Please note: International shipping will require an additional charge depending on country

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Reward #1 ($25.00 pledge): Chose a set of 2 5"x7" handmade cards
(photos by Lauren Raine and Peter Hughes)

"Amaterasu Omikami "Kali"

"Artemis" "Bast"

"Green Tara" "The Virgin of Guadaloupe"

"Grandmother Spider Woman" "Gaia"

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Reward # 2: "Carnaval Masks" ($55.00 pledge)

"Lucy's Mask"

"Leaf Mask"

"Water Mask" "Fire Mask"

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Reward # 3: "GAIA'S HAND" ($75.00 pledge)
Hand painted and signed ceramic Icon

"Gaia's Hand" (2012)
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Reward # 4: Mythic Masks ($150.00 pledge)

"Fairy Mask" or "Green Man" (ask about different colors if desired)

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Reward # 5 ($200.00 pledge):

THE MASKS OF THE GODDESS, by Lauren Raine MFA

This is a limited edition, 300 page book, beautifully illustrated throughout with original photographs by Thomas Lux, Ileya Stewart, Ann Beam, Peter Hughes, and Lauren Raine.

Signed by the author. Retail price (and author's price) is $60.00)

For a Preview of the Book: Blurb.com Bookstore

***All Images are copyright Lauren Raine, Thomas Lux, and estate of Peter Hughes

Working with Masks

2011-04-02T10:39:00.000-07:00

THE TRANSFORMATIVE MASK

Working with Masks and Myth

Every mask is the beginning of a story. Every mask invites a dance, because each mask is inhabited by a being waiting to reveal itself, whether a universally recognizable archetype, or an eccentric, very personal inner persona that can communicate in surprising ways. Masks can heal by speaking with a voice that we can't. In traditional cultures, such as Bali, sacred masks were viewed as a means for the divine - the gods, goddesses, ancestors and animal powers - to bless the living through ritual theatre.

Making a mask is a process, but it's only part of the process - those who will use the mask complete the journey. And because the "spirits of the masks" come from the Mythic Realm, there is really no end to the journey at all. Just a circle of new telling.

Casts of class members, Kripalu Institute, 2008

I've evolved several classes I use to teach others to make and use masks, which are:

"REVEALING THE MYTHIC SELF" (The Art of the Mask)

A Class open to interested participants of any age.

"THE MASKS OF THE GODDESS" (Discovering the Goddess Within)

This Workshop is for women who wish to explore archetypes of the Divine Feminine through mask making, mythology, storytelling and ritual. Generally, an immersion workshop best within a 4 day format, or as an ongoing class.

In both, we learn to sculpt a theatrical mask from our faces, explore personally significant stories and symbols, and learn approaches to storytelling with masks, with discussion about community performance and ritual theatre.

"Our work was not to re-enact the ancient goddess myths, but to take those myths to their next level of evolutionary unfolding. Artists are the myth makers."

Katherine Josten, Founder, THE GLOBAL ART PROJECT

I've found it's best to "invite the spirit of the mask" by beginning with a non-denominational Shrine. Participants bring objects that are personally sacred and meaningful. Our "Invocation" is a guided shamanic journey.

After we've created a Circle to work in, we "get plastered" in pairs as we take casts of our faces with plaster impregnated bandages. These will become masks, or, going a step further, will be cast into plaster positives on which more durable leather masks can be modelled.

Preparing casting materials

Making casts of faces

"Meditative Muses"

Removing dry mask

Now construction of the mask begins over the plaster positive of participant's face - material here being used is leather, which affords a flexible, life-size mask.

CONSTRUCTION of masks can come from a sketchbook, or entirely intuitive, often including found objects. And as the masks form, the next phase begins - what is the Story of the mask, and how might that story be told, moved, performed?

What might this mask have to say? Is this the beginning of a personal "Pantheon"? Perhaps more than one character has arrived to become a saga? What happens when you put the mask?

What might it sound like? Sometimes, with masks off but nearby as "silent observers", participants may do some stream of consciousness writing, allowing the mask to express itself in words. The class can begin to explore ways to work with surfacing personae........and it begins with "welcome!"

"Heart Healing" (Illana Stein)

"Kali" Liz Sanders

With many thanks to Nancy Solomon for the use of her photographs.

The Masks of the Goddess 1999-2008

2011-02-14T11:21:00.000-08:00

"Bridgit" (Linda Johnson) - Irish Goddess of Inspiration and Healing. Photo is courtesy Thomas Lux.

I've always been fascinated with masks in traditional societies, where they are viewed as “vessels for the archetypal powers”. With a mask, the Gods and Goddesses, the Animal Powers, can visit for a while, tell their stories, give their blessings, heal or even give prophecy, and they are considered powerful magical tools. In Bali, for example, special "Temple Masks" are kept in the Temple, and carefully treated with holy water before and after each sacred performance.

In 1999, after going to Bali myself to study mask arts, I created 30 masks of multi-cultural Goddesses, derived from mythologies around the world. Inspired by Balinese sacred masks, I wanted to offer my own collection as contemporary "Temple Masks", devoted to celebrating, exploring, telling and performing some of the great universal myths of the Divine Feminine.

"Sophia" (Valerie James)

Masks have so much transformative power. The Masks of the Goddesses were created to re-tell and re-new these important universal stories, as well as empowering the women who "invoke" a Goddess to explore each archetypal presence within herself. What does the story of Sedna, ocean mother of the Inuit, have to teach us about balance and ecology? What is the "Mirror of Sophia", goddess of wisdom? How is the "Descent of Inanna" a potent story of psychological death and rebirth?

I, and colleagues Macha NightMare, Diane Darling, Mana Youngbear, Serene Zloof, Lilla Luoma, and others, produced community performances and taught workshops with the collection, making The Masks of the Goddess available nationally. The result was that they traveled throughout the U.S. In 2008 the collection was retired, and sold through a Benefit auction.

"The masks of the goddess workshop was a pivotal event in my life. I have been feeling the Goddesses waking up ever since.....they were there, definitely there."

Lorraine Hogan, Kripalu Institute (2007)

"Our group's work was not to just tell the ancient myths, but to re-invent them for today. Artists are the myth makers."

Katherine Josten, The Global Art Project (2004)

"What the audience saw when a dancer looked through the eyes of the mask was the Goddess herself, ancient and yet contemporary, looking across time, across the miles."

Diane Darling, Director, Playwright, 2001

"Spider Woman" (Morgana Canady) weaving. Photo courtesy Annie Beam.

"Myth comes alive as it enters the cauldron of evolution, itself drawing energy from the storytellers who shape it."

Elizabeth Fuller, The Independent Eye , 2002

"The Virgin of Guadalupe" (Valerie James). Photo courtesy Ileya Stewart.

Comments about The Goddesses, by participants in the Project (2000 - 2005):

"Kali is so much about contemporary life. The demons of insatiable greed are devouring our planet again. We need to call upon the spirit of Kali, because those who await the future are being denied their birthright. Kali is the catalyst for saying "No more". It's time to embrace the sword of Kali and cut away the delusions that are destroying our world.........Drissana Devananda

"Pele to me is about the great elemental builders of our planet. Long before people walked upon any lands, the Creatrix of Kilauea brought forth islands from the Earth's hot, molten core, slowly cooling through the ages. Human beings are recent arrivals, and the fires of Pele burn through the eons, stirring up the Pacific, and shaping our very atmosphere."......... Karina McAbee

"Corn Mother's story is about the wealth that comes from the hard work of forgiveness. How can we be fed, feed each other, how can we create peace, if we cannot learn the lessons of forgiveness? That is the beginning place we will need in order to evolve into a Rainbow Nation. To me, the Rainbow as actually a circle. Half the rainbow disappears into the ground, into an underworld realm, where it exists beneath the Earth, dark and hidden, but at the foundation never the less. Like the Corn Mother."......... Christy Salo

"Lilith rules the liminal landscape between the subconscious and the conscious mind, and can help make that information conscious and usable in your life. Lilith is the bridge, and "What you believe" is just a shell that keeps you imprisoned. Lilith is about breaking the shell, because sometimes you have to fall apart to be put back together, that's the only way to be re-integrated."......... David Jeffers

"I remember lighting a candle to symbolize my commitment to my journey through the despair I felt at menopause. That's Hecate to me. She will not help you to avoid a thing, but She will bear a light for you on the path, which is really the path to mature empowerment."........Damira Norris

"Persephone's myth is about moving into a new state of being. All the soul riches, the knowledge, the art, everything was running down the drain into Hades and it stayed there. It stopped circulating. This was the myth of the descent of Inanna as well; everything went down to Ereshkigal, the keeper of the Underworld, and got stuck there in the universal unconscious which could be said of our collective predicament today. We can see that they are pathfinders to the unconscious. That's a very important myth for our time." ........Elizabeth Fuller

"Selu" (Kathy Huhtaluta)

The collection appeared at:

The University of Creation Spirituality, the Chapel of the Sacred Mirrors, the University of Syracuse Matrilineage Festival, the Health and Harmony Festival, Nations Hall Theatre at the Muse Community Arts Center, the New College of California, Sebastopol Community Center, the Masks Symposium at Southern Illinois University, and the Spiral Dance (1999, and 2006) in San Francisco, and other venues.

At "The Spiral Dance" (2006) Courtesy the San Francisco Chronicle

Thank you to all those who brought the stories, from Aphrodite to the Virgin of Guadaloupe, to many audiences with the masks. With special thanks to Macha NightMare, Mana Youngbear, and Abbie Willowroot, for their collaboration and encouragement. And to:

Serene Zloof, Annie Bridgit Weller, Diane Darling, Barbara Jaspersen, Starhawk, Shelly McHugh "Valley High", David Jeffers & Benad Hasche, Monika Mann, Kelly Nelson, Flynt Garner, Silk, Duncan Cook, Celestine Star, Evelie Posche, Lilla Luoma, Will Clipman, Jeff Grienke, Isobel Amourous, Kathy Huataluhta, Ileya Stewart, Morgana Canady, Valerie James, Quynn Elizabeth, Katherine Josten, Erica Swadley, Grey Eagle, Ann Huggins, Celestine Star, Kala, Eleni, Alan Moore, Drissana Devananda, Elizabeth Fuller, Conrad Bishop, Ann Beam, Paloma Hill, Jim Hewes, Arjuna & Tuva Space, Jo Odessa & Buka Creati, Deborah Scott Gren, Mary Kay Landon, Sabina Magliocco, Farida Fox, Tara Webster, Willow Kelly, Dawn Marlowe, Juan Pablo Guiterrez, Kala Levin, Amadae, Vibra Willow, Amy Luna Manderino, James Lovette-Black, Amie Miller, July Lewis, Stacy Kalkowski, Lee Hendrickson, Adrienne Hirt, Barbara BBC, Freya Anderson, Morgaine Harris, Laura Janesdaughter, Tansy Brooks, Willow Kelly, Damira Norris, Maria Wahlstrom, Fontain and FONTAIN'S MUSE, Kendra, Copper Persephone, Eleni Livitsanos, Jamra, Cypress, Cris Ferreira, Christy Salo, Melusina Gomez, Maritza Schaefer, Journey, Nada Khodlova, Stessa, Angela Blessing, Rachel Morgain, Catlin & Reggie Williams, Ingrid Aspomatis, Annie and Phil, Carlin Diamond, Alan & Audrey Smith, Lea Bender, THE VEIL, Sammi Alijagic, Paul Fisher, Toker Johnston, Linda Johnston, Motherbear Scott, Ashley Wallace, Melissa Penn, Laura Dubois, Dorit Bat Shalom, Jeanne Koelle, Karina McAbee, Navaab Munirith, Charlie Adams, Sharon Kihara, Nettie, Corinne Levy, Judy Foster, Dina, Amanda Allison, Wendy Cornelius, Kendra Stone, Bombshell Betty, Heaven, Ariel, Shanel, Carrie Adams, Kim Arnold, Nadirah Adeye, Thallia Bird, April Taylor, Donna Peck, Dailey Little, Rhonda, Marisa Scirocco, Jonette Ford, Lyndzee Dava, Ayelen Liberona, Carolyn Lucento, Pythia and the Temple of the Goddess …………and many more.

And thanks again to Thomas Lux, Peter Hughes, Ann Beam, and Ileya Stewart for the generous use of their photographs.

Mana Youngbear as "White Tara" (photo courtesy Ileya Stewart)

The Hidden Sea

2011-01-29T07:43:00.000-08:00

"The Hidden Sea" (2010)

Time does funny things in the desert.....sometimes it reveals an entire ocean, it's frozen tide pools and fossilized sea creatures, below, ebbing for a moment, it's currents waxing within the imagination. I am always impressed by the notion that I walk on the bed of an ancient ocean, the dreams of our ancestors, just beneath our feet, silently touching our lives.

"Ancestral Midwives" (2005)

Spider Woman's Hands - second edition published!

2010-08-21T14:11:00.000-07:00

"What might we see, how might we live if we saw with a webbed vision? The world seen through a web of relationships - as delicate as spider’s silk, yet strong enough to hang a bridge on."

Catherine Keller, "From a Broken Web" (1989)

I finally finished my second edition of my limited edition book SPIDER WOMAN'S HANDS - Weaving a Webbed Vision.

In indigenous cultures, cultures with oral traditions, stories don't end after two hours in a theater, or when we turn off the electronic box. Even today, when we talk about “spinning a good tale“, like the hands of Spider Woman, we’re participating in something that keeps spinning and evolving, generation into generation, from the waking world to the dreamtime, back into the past, and forward into the stories of those who are yet to come. In various native arts, a spider and womb motif is ubiquitous: because Spider was the first weaver, bringing order and form, balance and symmetry to primal, formless chaos from within herself. From her essence she spun the strands that became the first stories that became the world.

The Navajo ( Dine`) revere Spider Woman (Na'ashje'ii sdfzq'q) for teaching them how to weave. To this day, an infant Navajo girl will have a bit of spider web rubbed into the palms of her hands so she will become a good weaver. Wool rugs often have “Spider Woman's Cross” woven into the pattern, representing balance, the gestalt of the four directions. Navajo weavers also often leave a flaw in the work - because the only perfect web is that of Grandmother Spider Woman.

" The new myth coming into being through the triple influence of quantum physics, depth psychology and ecology suggests that we are participants in a great cosmic web of life, each one of us indissolubly connected with all others through that invisible field. It is the most insidious of illusions to think that we can achieve a position of dominance in relation to nature, life or each other. In our essence, we are one."

Anne Baring

"May we all rub a bit of spider web into the palms of our hands".

"Weavers" at Wesley Theological, 2009

2009-11-21T07:39:00.001-08:00

“What might we see, how might we act, if we saw with a webbed vision?"

Catherine Keller, "From a Broken Web"

"What is the new mythology to be, the mythology
of this unified earth as of one harmonious being?"

Joseph Campbell

"Weaver's" is installed in the staircase entryway at Wesley. As I worked, the "story" of this progression of hands became clearer to me. It is dedicated to the ongoing collaboration of the community of the Luce Center - for me, it is also a new “telling” of the Spider Woman, the weaver deity found throughout Native American mythology.

"It’s said that all stories
originate in the mind
of Spider Woman."

The "Hand and Eye" is the hand of the Divine, from which all inspirations come. Because it's also about the evolution of the arts center at Wesley, the first pair of hands belong to Cathy Kapikian, who retired this year after founding the program more than 25 years ago.

"The Seed Planter" seemed a fitting progression because all inceptions need visionary collaborators, people who find the means to "ground it into the soil." Tiles are based on stories told me by those who volunteered their hands. Mr.Tortorici told me that his family came from a village famous for growing olives, and so I made an olive branch. Ms. Oden, who is the Dean, told me she missed the wild storms of her Great Plains homeland, and so I inscribed a storm on her panel.

Dr. Hopkins is an archaeologist who has spent years in the holy lands, so his panel has pottery shards. Mr. Soulen is a banjo player and a bee keeper, which is why I put a flower on the neck of his instrument. The harmonies of music, and honey, sweeten the mix.

Doug Purnell is a painter, providing the hands of the artist. Olaf, who is from Iceland (thus, the "Cod Shield") makes her art from fabric. And Amy Gray brought the Gardener's graceful hands, offering the "flowering" of an idea.

Finally, I included the hands of Colleen Nelson, who has been a community activist all of her life.

Next to last, those of Deborah Sokolove, the new Director of the Luce Center. Deborah says of her Iconic artwork that they are "prayers made visible", and so I titled her panel (she made her own tiles) the "Iconographer".

I grew up with a Native American painting, that belonged to my father, of horses running across a desert. One of the horses was turquoise blue. When I assembled my panels, I found I had an "extra hand" from the cast of a child. I remembered that painting, and how the artist used the blue horse to show the presence of Spirit. So the last panel is for those who are not yet born.

"The new myth coming into being through the triple influence of quantum physics, depth psychology and the ecological movement suggests that we are participants in a great cosmic web of life, each one of us indissolubly connected with all others through that invisible field. It is the most insidious of illusions to think that we can achieve a position of dominance in relation to nature, life or each other. In our essence, we are one."

Anne BaringTo view my: BIO

New Work 2009

2009-05-14T13:50:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-14T13:39:00.001-07:00

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.

Earth Shrines

2009-05-14T10:56:00.000-07:00

She will rust us with blossom,
She will seal us with Her seed."

Robin Williamson

"Earth Shrines" were a series of mixed media sculptures I did in 2005 as a resident at both I Park Artist's Enclave in Connecticut, and at the Brushwood Folklore Center in New York. My rambles in those green, vibrant places, and the "numina", the deep sense of spirit of place, graced me with a daily conversation.

Gaia Shrine

This is an image I feel compelled to do over and over..........it re-occurs in pieces I have also done for my "Spider Woman's Hands" projects. I think they are a kind of prayer:

"May the creativity of our hands arise from our deep roots in the Earth,
flowering and green."

We are a part of the creativity and life of Gaia, of the Earth. May we remember to consciously live, and create, within that understanding.

The Black Madonna of medieval Europe, some scholars suggest, was the ancient Earth Mother, still revered beneath the iconography of the Church and absorbed into the image of the Blessed Mother Mary. To me, the Black Madonna is especially the ancient shrines these sacred Icons are always associated with. Before there were churches, there were special caves and trees and wells, places where people went to "speak with the Earth" - to be healed, reborn, and symbolically participate in the cycles of nature. I took the image a step further, and installed Her in a tree.

"The Black Madonna" (2005)
"There was once a vast pilgrimage that took place in Europe. Pilgrims made their way towards the town of Compostella in Spain, where an ancient effigy of the BLACK MADONNA is housed. The word Compostella comes from the same root word as compost. COMPOST is the living, black material that is made from rotting fruits, grains and other organic matter. From this compost - life and light will emerge. When the pilgrims came to the Cathedral at Compostella they were being 'composted' in a sense. After emergence from the dark confines of the cathedral and the spirit -- they were ready to flower, they were ready to return home with their spirits lightened."

~~ Jay Weidner

The Artist's Oracular Cookbook

2009-05-14T09:22:00.000-07:00

~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

BIO

2009-02-24T18:53:00.000-08:00

I consider myself an inter-disciplinary artist, because I'm always exploring new ways to express - with visual arts, ritual, choreography, masks, performance and a number of writing projects. My MFA is from the University of Arizona (1987) and BFA from the University of California at Berkeley (1973). Perhaps my greatest love is community and co-creative art forms.

In the 90’s I was fortunate to study “Temple Mask” traditions in Bali, and produced a series of collaborative masks with Balinese mask artists (including Ida Bagus Anom) which were exhibited and performed at Buka Creati Gallery in Ubud, Bali.

In 1999, inspired by Bali's traditions of "Temple Masks", I made 25 multi-cultural masks of Goddesses for The Spiral Dance at Ft. Mason Center in San Francisco. The MASKS OF THE GODDESS COLLECTION travelled throughout the U.S. for almost 10 years, with myself, and with other producers, ritualists, and choreographers. I was privileged to direct several community productions of my own ("Restoring the Balance" 2004, Tucson, Arizona and "1000 Faces of the Divine" 2002, in Oakland, California). I continue to offer workshops that explore archetypal masks and personal mythology.

In particular, I enjoy assisting women to explore universal and personal mythology through the art of the mask, and have taught workshops the Kripalu Institute, the University of Syracuse, Southern Arizona Friends of Jung, Brushwood Conference Center and many others. Other performances and workshops include: "Goddess"by Serene Zloof at the Chapel of Sacred Mirrors, New York, N.Y. (2004), "A Rainbow" (by Macha Nightmare) at the New College of California (2000, 2001), "The Divine Feminine", (Evelie Posche) at the University of Creation Spirituality in Oakland (2001), "Masks of Transformation" Conference, University of Southern Illinois (2005), and the "Matrilineage Symposium", Syracuse University, 2000.

In 2007 I received a fellowship from the Alden Dow Creativity Center at Northwood University and a Puffin Grant to explore the Native American mythology of the “Spider Woman” as a Community Arts Project at the Midland Arts Center. The project was continued in 2008 at the Creative Spirit Center, also in Michigan. In 2009 I was a resident artist at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C., where I continued to explore the theme, as a community effort, of a "Webbed Vision". In 2010 I was resident artist at Gallery 408 in Carrizozo, N.M., where I taught a class on creating personal Icons.

Recent exhibitions include "Earth Shrines" at Parisi Gallery in T or C, New Mexico, "Weavers" at Wesley (2009), "Spider Woman's Hands" at the Midland Center for the Arts (2007), a 2-person show of paintings at Turn of the Century Gallery in Berkeley, California (2005), "Sacred Icons" at the Artisans Center of Virginia (2005), "Sacred Space/Sacred Mask" (with Catherine Nash, 2004) at The Muse Community Arts Center in Tucson.

In 2008 I self published 4 limited edition books which may be viewed at www.yellowleafpress.blogspot.com . They include “The Masks of the Goddess – Sacred Masks and Sacred Dance” which is a document of the 8 year Project. These books may also be viewed through the online publisher www.blurb.com.

“Lauren is sublimely articulate about her inspiration, her study, and her realization. In her conversation, passion, and artistic creation, she evinces a mastery of the Spider Woman teachings which has uniquely prepared her to express a new articulation of the sacred teaching of wholeness. Like the ‘Spider Woman’ herself, Lauren has become one with the work of her hands. It is unusual to find a talented artist who is also sublimely articulate about her inspiration, her study, and her realization."

Sarah Gorman, Director, THE CREATIVE SPIRIT CENTER, Midland, Michigan

"Lauren probes the limits of whatever medium she addresses. The questions her art raises are deeply significant questions."

Robin Larsen, THE CENTER FOR SYMBOLIC STUDIES, Rosendale, NY