Featured ASWM artist Lauren Raine is holding a retrospective art show of her beautiful Masks of the Goddess Project. She describes her work this way:
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 Spiral Dance in San Francisco in 1999. I have been so privileged to collaborate with Priestesses, Playwrights, Dancers, Ritualists, Community Organizers, Photographers, Choreographers, Writers, Singers, and Psychologists in sharing the “Faces of the Goddess”. The spirits of so many collaborators are in every mask and photograph. It’s my hope that as the masks leave me, they’ll go out to be used by others, to continue their work in some way.
Just want to thank you and all of the amazing women I met at the Women and Mythology Conferences I have attended. If you or anyone you know will be in SF at that time, please be most cordially invited to the Opening, or to see the show.
Feminist visionary artist Rae Atira-Soncea passed away ten years ago. Now in a new retrospective show, her dynamic work will be on display again in the Spring of 2019. A longtime leader of the arts community and a disability rights activist, Rae was featured at the first symposium of ASWM in 2008. Her work also appears in ASWM’s proceeings volume, Vibrant Voices: Women, Myth, and the Arts.
“Still Powerful: feminist revisioning of domestic objects by Rae Atira-Soncea,” will be March 23-31, 2019, on the 3rd floor Common Wealth Gallery, 100 S Baldwin, Madison WI 53703 Open 10-4 weekdays, and 9-5 on the 24th, 30th and 31st.
Reception will be Saturday, March 23, 2018 4-7:30PM. Much of the art featured in her blog will be on display and on sale.
There are ways in which modern technology can serve the most ancient landscapes of myth and art. A prime example is a special exhibit currently showing at the Field Museum in Chicago: Scenes from the Stone Age: The Cave Paintings of Lascaux. Interior rooms of the magnificent Lascaux cave are reproduced to provide a simulated experience of the art of our ancient ancestors. The Field web site invites us to
Walk through exact cave replicas by flickering light, marveling at full-size copies of the paintings—including some never before seen by the public—and see them through the eyes of ancient artists. Deconstruct the paintings’ many layers of complexities, meet a lifelike Stone Age family, and discover why the true meaning and purpose of the caves remain a mystery even today.
La Dame de St. Sernin, a wonderful example of mythic megaliths
Last night I sat down at the computer with a cup of tea, a pen and a tablet, ready to experience “Ancestral Stones of the Elder Kindreds.” It was Max Dashu’s visual tour of the megalithic standing stones of Europe. I thought I was ready for the course, but I found myself writing and sketching all over my tablet until I had 6 pages of scribbled notes.
Deanne Quarrie (Bendis), a scholar and author in her own right, also took the class. She says,
I sat enthralled before my computer, enjoying Max’s collection of images of standing stones and menhirs from France, Spain, Germany, areas around the Mediterranean, and from Africa, clearly representing woman’s forgotten place in our ancient heritage. I am going to be taking her course (also online) and can hardly wait – I am so excited!
This is an ever-expanding and rotating juried exhibit of artworks by ASWM members. You may also want to visit our International Art Exhibition, “Wisdom Across the Ages,” which is available to view until September 9, 2021.
View Gallery: click on an image below to view full screen and comment (down arrow)
Hallelujah by Merry Norris
Ayyyhyt the Mother, by Max Dashu
Butterfly Goddess & Praying Mantis, by Louie Laskowski
Goddess Icon Banner of Anadolu Twins, by Lydia Ruyle
Anadolu Twins by Lydia Ruyle
Lydia says of this image, “The Anadolu Twins vibrate with the transformational energy of human relationships between parent-child, feminine-masculine, teacher-student, friend-foe, spirit-matter, idea-reality. Nothing in the universe exists in isolation. Everything is in relationship.”
Max says of this goddess: Siberians revered a white-maned Old Woman who was also a Mare. Ayyyhyt sits by the Tree of Life at the crest of the central world mountain. An endless stream of foamy moisture flows from the Tree to the holy Earth, forming a lake of pure milk. All-knowing, Ayyyhyt inscribes the fate of all beings on its leaves. This “gentle Creatrix” causes women to conceive, protects them in childbirth, and provides newborns with lifeforce and “a ceaseless breathing.” The Yakut called her Ayyyhyt or Ayisyt, Birth-Giving Nourishing Mother. The Altai Turks knew her as Milk Lake Mother, the giver of all life.
Goddesses from Scythia, along the Black Sea coast, were often shown with the wings and tail of a bird. As such, they may have been the origin of the Sirin figures. In some cases they were used as standards carried at the head of armies in battle, and thus related to the ‘winged victories’ found later in Greece.
The image is taken from a gold pendant in the Scythian gold collection at the Kiev Pechersky Lavra in Kiev, Ukraine. Fourth century BCE. It is pictured in Ganina.
Mary Plaster, MA, DMin, has been creating and teaching across various genres and venues of studio and theater art throughout her career. The image of Sophia, Divine Wisdom, arises from her interest in traditional religious iconography. Mary says of this original image, “I depicted Lady Wisdom seated in the context of the entire Cosmos, beckoning us to inclusive and sustainable decision making that gently cooperates with global community.”
Mary’s other works, based on folk art from Mexico, are large papier-mâché puppets of historical and mythological figures. Mary is currently designing gods and creatures for the University of Minnesota’s musical theater spring 2011 production of The Odyssey. Learn more about her workshops and creations at maryplaster.com
Hallelujah by Merry Gant Norris
Hallelujah by M. Norris
Merry Gant Norris is an artist, teacher, and creativity mentor who worked for 35 years to develop community resources for women in recovery from addiction. She says, “Hallelujah is a mandala celebrating the mother aspect of the Triple Goddess.” A painter of both goddesses and mandalas, Merry has been honored with five solo shows and in 2000 opened Merry Nova Studio as a safe place for women to explore their spirituality through art. Merry gives mandala workshops and founded GODDESS AND ANGEL, a joyful program that helps women discover their sacred wholeness.
Jassy Watson, who lives on the sub-tropical coast of Queensland Australia, is a Mother of four, passionate organic gardener, Visionary Artist, Teacher, Intentional Creativity Coach and a student of Ancient History and Religion at Macquarie University, Sydney. She is the Creatress of Goddesses Garden, Studio & Gallery; a school for the Sacred Creative Arts, where she teaches regular painting workshops based around themes that explore the feminine. Jassy is passionate about helping women awaken to their creative potential and building community through creativity.
Ancient Spirit Wisdom “ represents the wisdom of our ancestors passed on through story, image, sculpture, word, song, dance, ritual, prayer and ceremony. She is a reminder that my stories are also the stories shared by women everywhere, from past to present.”
Butterfly Goddess & Praying Mantis, by Louie Laskowski
Butterfly Goddess and Praying Mantis
Louie is a long-time artist and art educator who lives in central Indiana. This painting is one of a series called “Under the Wall Paper” that has many patterns in the work to mimic wallpaper patterns in vintage books. Louie says, “As an owner of an 1800’s home, I know about peeling layers of wallpaper—There is a sense of time, style, and culture in these layers. I reflect upon the women who came before me. I imagined, ‘What would a butterfly goddess look like?’ and chose a Black Madonna. The praying mantises in my gardens love cabbage butterflies so I painted the critter, honoring its life source as well. The colors and textures are due to the influences of Mexican culture on my “white-male university-art-training” aesthetics.”
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