Marian cycle
The inspiration for series
Wednesday, October 07, 2009
quasi cedrus exultata... exalted like a cedar in Lebanon
ink & watercolor on rag paper
30x20 inches
$325
In 2007-2008 I discovered Sienese paintings from the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance. I was drawn to the iconography and symbolism, certainly because of my Catholic upbringing, but also because I saw in the arches, gardens, labial shapes, towers, ladders etc., images and symbols I had obsessively drawn and painted for several years. The work relating to these female shapes and images are part of the Marian cycle. Some of the work I'm doing now involves simplifying the imagery even further to "embody" it, in other words, make it more substantial and corporeal by making it three dimensional. I folded and pounded copper and crushed cans and created arches of paper mache, attached objects with nails. The subject matter is symbolic and spiritual but the underlying goal is to marry the sacred and profane, reminding the viewer that when western religion created that duality they rebuked the generative creative force embodied in the great Feminine. They made sex, pregnancy and lactation obscene, but in reality these are essential creative acts, full of beauty and terror, awe and deep satisfaction.
I am fascinated by the duality and opposition inherent in our thinking about the sacred and about Nature. The drive to balance duality is the basis for much of my work - striving to find that place of balance where opposites co-exist.
