REDONDOWRITER'S SACRED ORDINARY

Day 5: 12 Days of Mother Love - Queen of Stars Variation

Queen of Stars Variation 1 - Polyvore

Queen of Stars Variation 2 - Dreamscope Fractal Filter

Queen of Stars Variation 3 - Dreamscope Highlight Filter

I created the first image Queen of Stars in Polyvore in March 2016. Last night I played with filters in an application called Dreamscope. When I have time, I like to try out various filters with my own photography and with images I make in varied media. Over the centuries the divine feminine has been created by countless artists in many mediums. If you haven't tried this app, it opens up new artistic worlds--and even a way to worship in new ways. 

Visit Rebecca Brooks Recuerda mi Corazon to see other people's offerings for today in the 12 Days of Mother Love meme. 

Day 4: 12 Days of Mother Love - Gas Station Madonna

Madonna

Photo by SheepInABottle on Flickr

Stephanie Mancini

Passersby leave rosaries on this madonna in a gas station. I found her originally on Pinterest. Does anyone know where the gas station is? 

If you would like to see the work of other participants in Rebecca Brooks annual Twelve Days of Mother Love, go to Recuerda mi Corazon. 

 

Day 3: Twelve Days of Mother Love - Fr. John Giuiliani

Pinterest is one of my occasional obsessions and one of my boards is Madonnas and the Divine Feminine. I have several images saved there from my internet travels and have discovered many artists and creators I wouldn’t have known about otherwise. One artist is Fr. John Giuliani who often depicts his icons in the dress of Native Americans or other indigenous peoples. This image is called “Choctaw Virgin Mother & Child.” The company Bridge Building also has many of Fr. Giuliani’s images.

Please join us at Rebecca Brooks Recuerda mi Corazon for her annual 12-day meme featuring madonnas and the divine feminine.

Day 2: 12 Days of Mother Love and Haiku

Thanks to Rebecca at Recuerda mi Corazon, the annual meme 12 Days of Mother Love continues this first week in December. It ends on December 12, the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. The purpose is to rejoice through art, photography and language that the divine feminine helps us to make sense of the complexities of our sacred ordinary lives. On Fridays Rebecca always hosts Haiku My Heart so today the two memes are combined. 

Even while waiting

She asks why she was chosen

To give the world hope.

This digital Polyvore art and expression set features detail from Botticelli's The Virgin and Child With Saint John and an Angel, 1490. A few years ago Meri Arnett-Kremian posted some of her Polyvore sets and a new world of digital art opened up. Meri, thanks so much. Visit Recuerda mi Corazon to see other offerings from other participants.

 

Day 1 - 12 Days of Mother Love

From December 1-12 each year Rebecca Brooks at Recuerda mi Corazon blog hosts a meme in honor the divine feminine, mothers, Mary, madonnas. This year she is calling it 12 Days of Mother Love. She invites other people to post links leading up to December 12, the feast day for Our Lady of Guadalupe. This is my first entry for 2017, a SoulCollage® card in the Council suit I call Madonnas Universal. 

In theSoulCollage® method we write statements that usually begin with "I am one who----" It personalizes the card. I am one who is deeply drawn to the Madonna and images of the divine feminine. Lately I have missed my own mom so much more than usual and she has been gone since Dec. 14, 1968. When I close my eyes I imagine myself on her lap, head burrowed against her soft breasts while she reads Poppy the Fairy. There is such power in the feminine, ideally nurturing, ever-teaching and protecting, the one who loves unconditionally, the one who gives birth.  Thank you, momma. You are the one I trust the most, who I long for in the night.

Please visit Recuerda mi Corazon to view the art and creations of other participants in 12 Days of Mother Love.

The Wise Old Man Meets the Fool - SoulCollage®

 Yesterday I made two SoulCollage® cards and both of them are in the Council suit. That's where the archetypes reside and those things that are larger than life. I am extremely restless right now as the academic year comes to a close; I only have four more weeks to work until I get 10 weeks off for the summer. I've been thinking too much. Doing the various kinds of art I create--and writing--and reading--makes me stop thinking so much. 

This card is called "The Wise Old Man." My late spiritual director Betsy Hedberg Caprio nudged me once to really focus on the masculine in my art because I do have a tendency to create predominately feminine images. Starting with SoulCollage's "IATOW" statement, I am the one who was taught that God the father was a wise old man and that the Bible was filled with wise old men. I still carry those images, of course, but the personification of it was my dear paternal grandfather who came to live with us from when I was five until I was twelve. His death was the first one I encountered as a child. He became my best friend in so many ways and hanging out in his trailer and hearing his stories really enriched my life. I carry you in my heart forever wise old man Ed Streur.

The archetype of the fool, jester or clown plays a key role in my SoulCollage® deck and I have made several cards with this theme. I am the one who has played the fool purposely, especially in adolescence, to get people to laugh at me--and themselves. I realized my zany side early. Everyone always seemed to take most things in life so seriously and by making people laugh, I guess I hoped they wouldn't notice my imperfections. I have a good sense of humor and allow the zany side to surface with my dear old friend Rick Hammond and his late wife Orma. I am the one who adores watching stand up comedy and have to keep myself in check when life gets too serious. There is such a fine line between comedy and death. 

My Self Evolves With Each SoulCollage® Card

Yesterday I made two SoulCollage® cards in our monthly group and each one, for some reason I don't really understand, has shed some light on parts of me I rarely acknowledge. This weekend I hope to take journal time with the first card. How I love Seena Frost's method. 

I call this one Symbols of Me and put it into my Council Suit.

I am the one who uses cross-cultural symbolism in most of my art because the pull to use symbols allows me to think out of the box. I bless my father who introduced me to symbolism and the mystery schools of belief when I was a young child. Because I do not color outside the lines easily in life, creating art and prose with symbols allows me a window into a form of personal surrealism. Those glimpses into a hidden me intuitively give me another tool to connect with all that is. I don’t always understand these creations, but the unexplainable often gives me relief from the perpetual anxiety I carry.

This card, on the other hand, has me grinning from ear to ear. I call it Mark Zuckerberg and he now is part of my SoulCollage® Community suit. When I feel lonely, sometimes I lay out all the cards in this suit in a big circle. They are the equivalent of Steve Martin's big cardboard cutout of a human in Lonely Guy. The Community suit is my favorite in Seena Frost's process although I have far more cards in Committee and Council. 

I am the one who took my father’s advice from childhood to embrace not just “popular” people, but unusual ones as they often had unique viewpoints. I populate my Community suit in SoulCollage not only with my family, ancestors, and departed friends, but people I admire and often with “interesting characters.” Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, now joins Steve Jobs in my Community Suit, as examples. I dated mostly engineers and was married for 27 years to one. People with scientific minds have always fascinated me (and often annoyed me) because they think almost the polar opposite of me. They round me out. Mark, like Steve Jobs, has revolutionized the way we understand our world. I see both of them as men who brought about cultural cosmic change.

Four Versions of My Garage Sale Mary

I used to go to estate and garage sales a few Saturdays a month but then when I had successful bladder cancer surgery last fall, I realized for the sake of my kids, that I couldn't keep accumulating "stuff." But, for some reason, I decided to drop by two sales yesterday and three today. I really do get a very special rush from "junking," I'll admit. I set an intention of finding a new office chair today--and, I found a great one for $15 at the first estate sale I stopped at. This woman, who had passed, was a crafter personified and I had to rein myself in, but I couldn't resist a beautiful plaster of Paris madonna and child, even though she was pretty dinged up. Those of you who know me well, know that I love all things Mary, madonna and divine feminine. Made in Mexico originally, I got out some of my Lumiere paints and touched her up. This is what she looks like now. 

She is approximately 14" high and 10" wide--and I absolutely adore her. 

But, I also love putting some of my photos through the Dreamscope app  Following are three more versions of Mary. I am downloading all the images to my Pinterest account but I'm also downloading them to my Polyvore account so I can play more later in making some digital art with her. Who could imagine that my $15 Mary would bring such pleasure? And thank you to the woman who once sat at her old Mac in my new office chair and sometime long ago bought this Mary. 

Mary using the Glory filter. 

 Mary using the Tangerine filter. 

Mary with the Terrace filter. 

 

SoulCollage® Card - Orma Hammond

This is the third SoulCollage card I have made recently and I call it Orma Hammond and it is in my Community suit. Orma died on Nov. 22, 2015 and all of us are still reeling from her loss. 

"I am the one who first met Orma in 1990 through my good friend Kathy Barron. She was not only an artist, had had an exciting and unusual life, she was beautiful and we shared many spiritual beliefs. A relationship had recently ended and she was starting her “new life” as she had done at least 3 times before. I ultimately introduced her to my friend Rick Hammond and they instantly fell in love. Then she moved to Guatemala to do community service and regroup--and darned if Rick didn’t follow her there and bring her back home eventually--as his wife. Orma very unexpectedly died on Nov. 22, 2015, only a week shy of her 80th birthday. She and Rick were married for more than 20 years and I am the one (of many family members and friends) who tries to bring him comfort as he grieves. But, I am grieving, too. She was a larger-than-life kind of person. She leaves behind a large inventory of art. The background of this card is one of Orma’s paintings and her self-portrait when she was younger is on the bottom. I miss you so, Orma, and your sudden death has me thinking a lot of my own aging process and speculating on how much time I have left."

SoulCollage® Card - Natalie Wood

This is the second of three SoulCollage® cards I recently made. This one is called Natalie Wood and is in the Community suit. 

"I am the one who had crushes on several movie stars as a kid and adolescent and Natalie Wood was one of them. I first started my obsession when I saw her in Miracle on 34th St. I was 9 and she was 8. When I was 13, both she and Tab Hunter, another of my male heart throbs, were in our small town Sunland Tujunga parade and I got both their autographs. She rode in a convertible and was all made up and absolutely adorable. She got out of the car a few times and she was so tiny. I hand’t even started to wear lipstick yet. We followed our celebrities back then in movie magazines long before celebrity media hype was born. I gobbled up each tidbit, new boyfriend, husbands, children, and most fondly remember Rebel Without a Cause (James Dean, another hearthrob), Splendor in the Grass and Westside Story. I am the one who was shocked when she drowned off Catalina Island in 1981 under unusual circumstances. She and Robert Wagner had quarreled, Christopher Walken was aboard, along with the captain. In her autopsy they found excessive alcohol and painkillers and I felt very sad about that. I am the one who still sees Natalie as a beautiful woman, a coquette, mysterious, almost Goddess-like, and eternally young although she would be 77 now."