REDONDOWRITER'S SACRED ORDINARY

Our Lady of the African Continent: A SoulCollage® Card

 

This is one of three SoulCollage® cards I created this week. I call it Our Lady of the African Continent and it’s in the Council suit. My I am the one who statement would be, “I am the one who is beloved cross-culturally, the epitome of the divine feminine. I bring comfort and hope to all humanity.”

As those who know me well, I have a deep connection to Our Lady, not in the religious sense really, but as an archetype of the divine feminine. I was not raised Catholic, so Mary wasn’t part of my growing up years. When I converted to Catholicism in 1958, however, I began to realize what an important role she plays in this religion and I quickly fell in love with her. When I was married, part of the Mass for marriage is when the bride goes to Mary’s altar and presents a bouquet with a prayer to ask for Mary’s blessings as a wife and mother. That was a totally new concept to me. I laid gardenias at her feet. I took that symbol seriously and began to seek her image in many places I visited. 

By the early 1960s I was reading the work of the Benedictine mystic Thomas Merton and I distinctly remember his poem “Hagia Sophia,” written in 1963, another eye opener for me. If you want to learn more about Merton you can go to the University of Dayton site or to the Bellarmine College site where his archive resides. Merton wrote many Marian poems.

Most recently I’ve read two books about Mary, very different, but each interesting in its own way.

The first was Our Lady of the Lost and Found by Diane Schoemperlin. The second was The Testament of Mary by Colm Toibin. If you are not particularly steeped in Marianology, I think you would find either of them interesting. They are not theological by any means, but fiction where Mary plays a key role. 

In the meantime, my own art continues to focus on what I call femmage or the divine feminine. I am so grateful to have Mary in my life.  

 

 

 

 

 

Haiku My Heart Friday: Grateful for Another Valentines Day

When you really think about it, the commercial celebration of Valentines Day is a silly tradition. Culture has set us up for romance which is bound to bring expectations, sometimes fulfillment, but often disappointments. Yet, we all know that love is given and received in so many different ways. Valentines Day reminds me of one of the reasons I like to go to church regularly. It's like going to the gas station and getting a fill-up. Maybe Valentines Day is a yearly fill-up of love, a reminder of how important love in all its flavors really is. As for me, the concept of three kinds of love (romantic, filial and agape) long ago sunk in. I do, however, celebrate all of you who are blessed with romantic love today and every day. I do have some lovely memories. So,I give you three ways I honored Valentines Day with my art--and with one haiku for Rebecca's Haiku My Heart Fridays. 

Not just on this day,

But every day, practice love

and the world will heal. 

This is an art journal page I made this week. 

And this is a page created on Polyvore. 

And here is Sophia the Art Mannikin who is celebrating quietly downstairs.

Re-Ignite - Two Page Art Journal Spread

Among many art processes I enjoy, art journaling is one of them, but I haven't been doing that as much lately. An incident happened on the weekend, however, that re-ignited me. There is an e-mail list in Los Angeles called Art Gang L.A. hosted by artist/teacher Kelly Kilmer. It is lightly trafficked and mostly it tells about many happenings in the L.A. area, good places to buy supplies, etc. but occasionally some members are doing what we call "de-stashing." This means they are either selling some of their collage supplies or occasionally giving them away. 

I'm a supply addict, like most mixed media artists that I know. Many I buy new or used at tag sales. I scour the Palos Verdes Library Disrict used book sales for books and magazines. Thanks to Art Gang L.A., I contacted a woman named Kara who was destashing for free to a good home and I was willing to drive to mid-city to pick up. Kara (I call her St. Kara) had several boxes of old magazines and many bags full of mixed media supplies. She was in a cleaning out mode. Picture rubber stamps, tapes, papers, and ephemera galore, plus old issues of Somerset Studio and Cloth, Paper, Scissors. 

This two page red and black spread in my current art journal is largely made from scraps from Kara's supplies. Just click on it to enlarge. Her gift re-ignited me. And, I am once again re-organizing my own supplies. What I don't need or want will either go to Art at Your Fingertips (educational program) or to other locals in need of supplies. 

One other time I lucked out when a woman who lived nearby was moving to Hawaii and wanted to give away seven stacks of wire mesh storage drawers and the wooden door on top as a work space. It occupies one full wall of my funky studio/office and moving it in my car was arduous. Her husband brought the door in his truck.  Thanks, Chris, in Hawaii. I see her on Facebook. 

By the way, I can't recommend teacher Kelly Kilmer enough. Check out her website if you are interested in art journaling. Most of what I know I learned through her.