Saturday, July 31, 2021
Tuesday, January 12, 2021
"Our Lady of the Shards" - Mosaic Shrines (2018 - 2019)
The Series is collectively called "Our Lady of the Shards" as they are meant to honor that which has been buried, lost or broken, and is now re-surfacing to the contemporary world to tell us the ancient stories that we need now. Working in a pottery studio, I saw many beautiful broken pottery shards lying about, and I began to think of artists sometimes being "mythic archeologists", uncovering and resurrecting the lost and forgotten lives and wisdom of the past, piecing it together to find the shapes and reveal the mysteries. Or it could be said that the Spirits of the past are rising from the broken shards, insistant on being heard and honored, because they are once again truly needed.
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| Shrine to the Ancient Midwives "Our Lady of the Forgotten Midwives" remembers the enduring love of Millenia of Ancestral Midwives, the women whose hands brought each generation into the world. |
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| The Memory Keeper II |
"The Memory Keeper" was inspired by a song called "Water from Another Time", which speaks eloquently of the wisdom and gifts of the elderly, and of previous times, needed to nourish each new generation.
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| Our Lady of the Desert Spring |
Our Lady of the Desert Spring is a bas relief ceramic mosaic that is a personal Icon loosely inspired by traditional Catholic Iconic imagery. It is meant to be accompanied by a prayer or poem, in both English and Spanish, and is also designed to include a mosaic "frame" or border as part of the presentation. "Our Lady of the Desert Spring" also represents an invocation to the "Numina" or "spirit of place" of the desert. Water is the true life blood of the desert, its most precious resource.
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| Hecate |
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| The Black Madonna The Black Madonna reflects my personal sense that this widely archetypal image, a source of many pilgrimages to sacred places throughout Europe for thousands of years, represents the Earth Mother, the dark rich soil that sustains us |
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| The Bone Goddess |
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| Old Masks |
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| The Memory Keeper I |
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| The Weaver |
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| Shrine for the Forgotten Midwives |
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| Our Lady of the Waters |
Tuesday, April 2, 2019
Exhibit of the Masks of the Goddess - Closing the Project
In May I will be concluding the 20 year MASKS OF THE GODDESS PROJECT, which began as an Invocation to the Goddess at Reclaiming's 20th Annual Spiral Dance in San Francisco in 1999. I have been so privileged to collaborate with Priestesses, Playwrights, Dancers, Ritualists, Community Organizers, Photographers, Artists, Photographers, Choreographers, Writers, Singers, and Psychologists in sharing the stories and "Faces of the Goddess". So many from around the country participated in the Project - please know that your spirit and contribution will be there, in every mask and photograph.
The Opening will be May 5th, and I'll give a small slide presentation, and afterwards I'm delighted that there will several performances, including Evelie Delfino Sales Posch to sing her beautiful songs, and mask wearers Drissana and Vibra to invoke the Goddesses. Perhaps we'll see you there!
I have also just revised and added a great deal of new material to my book
"The Masks of the Goddess", which is available at Blurb.com.
You can turn pages in a "Preview" at this link:
http://www.blurb.com/b/
Thank you once again for sharing your creativity and love of the Goddess with so many, and especially, with me. May the Masks continue their work.
Lauren
www.masksofthegoddess.com
Thursday, September 14, 2017
Workshops at Circle Studio with Lauren Raine 2017-2018
ONE-DAY WORKSHOPS! - Make your own Portrait in Clay
In this fun one day workshop you'll learn how to cast your face to make a beautiful Self-Portrait sculpture in special air-dry clay....which you'll be taking home with you. We'll also share lunch and conversation. $50.00 (includes materials) 10:00 am to 4:00 pm Every SECOND SATURDAY of each month beginning in November 2017. Class is limited to 5 people.
Workshops on: Nov. 11, Dec. 9, Jan. 13, Feb. 10, March 10, April 14
To enroll, please contact laurenraine9@gmail.com, or call (520) 609-4904.
A $25.00 non-refundable deposit is required to hold your place.
Location: CIRCLE STUDIO in Central Tucson
(http://circlestudio.weebly.com/workshops--classes.html)
Instructor: Lauren Raine MFA has been a mask artist for over 30 years and has taught at the Sedona Arts Center, Pima College, the Peters Valley Craft Center, Kripalu, and the Tucson Clay Co-op. To learn more about her work: www.laurenraine.com
Sunday, March 26, 2017
Quan Yin
I've made a number of sculptures dedicated to Quan Yin *** and this is the most ambitious one in progress. Quan Yin, the manifestation of Divine Compassion throughout Chinese Buddhism, represents the Bodhissatva - the Great Being who "hears the cries of the world" and returns, again and again, to aid the suffering of the world. She is often shown, like Tara of Tibet, with many arms, and has been called "thousand armed Quan Yin"....the arms being the many ways she can help and assist those in need.
I don't know why I have felt the need to create so many Quan Yin images, exactly. I have felt so much this past year the hardening of hearts, division, anger, and mean spiritedness in my country, and have become quite political with the rise the far right agenda and the election of Trump. As above, so below - in the process I have seen a lot of anger and division coming out of me as well, not all of it manifesting in a good or wise way. So making masks, making art about Quan Yin (and I am also making a painting about the Archangel Micheal), whether I realize it or not consciously, is an act of invocation. For the world, but most especially for myself.
As I love to tell my students, but don't always remember myself.........art making can be a great act of invocation, a great act of healing, an act of magic if you will. When my model and I were working on the sculpture above, we both felt a kind of light in the room, a yellow, calm, serene light/sensation. The Goddess was with us as we invoked Her through our creative process. And it really doesn't matter if you even "believe" in the Goddess Quan Yin. I'm not sure that "believing" is anywhere near as important as simply wanting help, wanting guidance, opening the heart. I don't "believe" the Divine Ones care what we call them or what form we give them. But making art can thus be an act for us of devotion and spiritual practice or transformation. The art object, finished, becomes an icon, a talisman to remind us.
I wanted to make a Quan Yin that, instead of the idealized and beautiful, but iconic, representations, looks like a real woman in the real world of today - Bodhisattva walking among us, working among us, hearing and responding to the pain of the world, bringing healing and love. And not a beautiful young woman either, idealized, but a woman in her middle years, reflecting the experience that comes with embodiment.
***
Kuan Shih Yin - Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva
The Bodhisattva of Great Compassion
The Sanskrit name "Avalokiteshvara" means "the lord who looks upon the world with compassion". Translated into Chinese, the name is "Kuan Shih Yin"or Quan Yin.
Kuan: observe
Shih: the world / the region of sufferers
Yin: all the sounds of the world, in particular, the crying sounds of beings, verbal or mental, seeking help
Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva is the embodiment of great compassion. He has vowed to free all sentient beings from suffering. Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva is has great powers and can help all sentient beings. His skilful means are limitless and he can appear in any form in all the six realms of existence to relieve the suffering of the sentient beings who live there. He vowed to rescue those who call on him when they are in suffering, for example, when caught in a fire, shipwrecked or facing an attack.
In the Lotus Sutra, Shakyamuni Buddha said that if a suffering being hears the name of Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva and earnestly calls out to the Bodhisattva, Avalokiteshvara will hear the call and relieve that being from his suffering.
According to the Huayen Sutra, Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva transforms himself into forms that suit the nature of those to be helped. His manifestations or transformation bodies are countless. e.g. if a boy or girl is about to gain some enlightenment, Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva transforms himself into a boy or a girl to teach the child.
e.g. If a monk is about to attain some enlightenment, Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva transforms himself into a monk.
In short, he can appear as a monk, a nun, or a normal person like you and me. The purpose of such transformations is to make people feel close to him and willing to listen to his words.
In China, Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva is represented in female form and is known as Kuan Yin. Probably because of Kuan Yin's great compassion, a quality which is traditionally considered feminine, most of the Bodhisattva statues in China since the Tang Dynasty (A.D. 618 - 907) have appeared as female figures. In India, however, the Bodhisattva is generally represented as a male figure.
In her hands, Kuan Yin may hold a willow branch, a vase with water or occasionally, a lotus flower. The willow branch is used to heal people's illnesses or bring fulfillment to their requests. The water ( the dew of compassion) has the quality of removing suffering, purifying the defilement of our body, speech and mind, and lengthening life.
In Buddhist art, Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva is sometimes shown with eleven heads, 1000 hands and eyes on the palms of each hand (Thousand-Armed Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva). The thousand eyes allow the Bodhisattva to see the sufferings of sentient beings, and the thousand hands allow her to reach out to help them.
Sometimes, he is represented with one head and 4 arms. This is the Four-Armed Avalokiteshvara, worshipped by all Tibetans as "Chenrezig", the Holder of the White Lotus. It is in the male form which has two hands in the praying gesture while the other two hands hold his symbols, the Crystal Rosary and the Lotus Flower.
There is a sacred place for the worship of Kuan Yin in China - the Putuo Mountain. It is actually an island located near the city of Ningpo, in Zhejiang Province. There are many stories of Kuan Yin's miraculous appearances at Putuo Mountain.
Actually, anyone can be like Kuan Yin. You may say that you don't have a thousand eyes or a thousand arms or that you lack skillful means, but it is your compassion that can transform you into a Kuan Yin. With your eyes and hands, you can help others. With your compassion, you can bring peace and tranquility to this world.
The Mani Mantra (The Mantra of Universal Protection) : OM MANI PADME HUM
from: Buddhanet
Monday, August 15, 2016
3 Day Mask Arts Intensive Workshops in Tucson in 2016 and 2017*
THE MASKS OF THE GODDESS
3 Day Mask Arts Intensive Workshop
for women
November 11 - 13, 2016 and
April 7 - 9, 2017
$300.00.
Limited Housing** is available for $50.00 extra.
Introduction and check in begins Friday evening, and Workshop ends at Noon with a potluck lunch on Sunday. In this workshop we'll draw on our mythic imaginations as we explore ways to invoke the Goddess within through the creation of durable theatrical masks. We will also discuss ways to use these masks for storytelling, ritual, community performance and personal exploration. You take home the means to continue the work, alone or with your community.
To learn more, please visit: the Masks of the Goddess Project.
Note: There is a $20 fee for supplies. Bring a story about a Goddess archetype you wish to explore.
"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 Participant
To read more about making masks:
http://laurenraine.blogspot.com/2011/04/working-with-masks.html
**As available.
MASK AND MYTH
3 Day Mask Arts Intensive Workshop
for Men and Women
April 14 - 16, 2017
$300.00
Limited Housing** is available for $50.00 extra
Introduction and check in begins Friday evening, and Workshop ends at Noon with a potluck lunch on Sunday. Although masks can be experienced as art objects, by their very nature they are active rather than passive. They are "vessels for our stories". We'll draw on our “mythic imaginations” as we explore the creation of durable theatrical masks. Is there a Persona that awaits a face, a story, a voice? Creating a mask is a way to open the conversation. We'll learn:
· To sculpt masks from our faces, creating durable theatrical masks.
· Explore personally significant stories of mythic Archetypes.
· Discuss approaches to working with masks for performance, community, and
educational purposes.
Note: There is a $20 fee for supplies. Bring a story, and art materials that you might wish to include in a mask.
To read more about making masks: http://laurenraine.blogspot.com/2011/04/working-with-masks.html
"Myth comes alive as it enters the cauldron of evolution,
drawing energy from the storytellers who shape it."
Elizabeth Fuller, The Independent Eye Theatre
*A $100.00 deposit is required for workshops, which can be purchased via Visa, Mastercharge, Paypal, check or money order.
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