It has been lovely to be quiet in this space while I work on other things, but I just wanted to pop in to say that I am still here, and I do hope to return to posting a little more regularly as soon as I can.
More art is being birthed in my studio, though the technique I am using is time-consuming, so progress is slow; and if I am not happy with a work, I begin again … and again. Hence, I don’t have anything new to reveal as yet, but I am working on something.
In other news, I’ve been *trying* not to buy books, as things got more than a little out of hand last year, but a few more have entered my collection. The first is Marija Gimbutas’ The Language of the Goddess, which (to be fair) I had been trying to get hold of since I began Witchlines last February. It’s proving to be a veritable treasure trove of imagery and ideas, which I intend to use to inspire my own artistic work.
Since our ancient ancestors lived so close to the earth, this is reflected in the art they made, which, though it often features the human form, also has a strong connection with the nonhuman and the numinous. Furthermore, they made much use of multivalent symbols, which I find particularly fascinating. These symbols and signs are doorways into meaning, into the sacred; and the work Gimbutas has done in deciphering them, and bringing the world of Old Europe back into consciousness, is invaluable.
The next books I have acquired are The Shetland Notebooks and Sketchbooks by Kate Walters—a sequel to her beautiful Iona Notebooks (2017), from Guillemot Press. I have loved Kate’s work for a number of years, so this is a special treat, particularly as it came with an exquisite original watercolour, which I adore.
I’m going to enjoy the process of allowing these intimate embryonic paintings to seep in to nourish me from the inside, and hopefully also to emerge again, transformed, in my own art.
Earlier this month I was also lucky enough to see the incomparable Margaret Atwood speak about her dystopian fiction at the Sydney Opera House, and got a couple of books signed by the ‘goddess of the north’ herself.
So, while the last few months have been very difficult, right now I am feeling so very fortunate.
how nice that you got to the atwood lecture---i bet she is a compelling speaker.
ReplyDeleteit's so interesting to me that all the books i was pleased to discover and amazed by in the 1990s seem to be returning to currency lately...i hope it means that the time has come for the ideas in them to inform our cultures as they transition to something better. it seems like roughly every 30 years or so, women begin speaking up and the iconographies of matrifocal cultures percolate into arts and letters again. there is always push-back, always dismissal. "still, she rises..."
Yes, she was very impressive, and her lecture had a little of everything—humour, despair, and even a hilarious folk song about how big Canada is. :D
DeleteI think many young women are becoming interested in the work of Gimbutas, Max Dashu, and anything to do with ancient matrifocal cultures (Sylvia Linsteadt has certainly played a part in that, at least for me). I think it's a positive sign, that we are beginning to reclaim our lost histories, and reconsider how we live today.
I think Gimbutas herself estimated that it would take 30 years after her death for her work to be accepted. It has been 25 years now, so perhaps the process is starting to get underway. I do hope that is the case.