Description
This magic lantern drawing is an image of the human as the Goddess. It's an image of Divine Woman, our Higher Self manifesting as the Triple Fold Goddess which co-exists with the lower, wounded self.
The Goddess surrounds, penetrates and transcends beyond the egoistic human personality, and the work of the spiritual aspirant in every time and place is always one and the same -- to pierce the veil between the mind and the Divine that overshadows our everyday consciousness.
This complex being, at once human and Great Mother, has a Medusa like head of snakes, the trunk of a tree, and roots going deep into the ground. The number three is stamped on the piece near the heart which is visible inside the trunk, invoking the Triple Fold Goddess who exerts her power on us to remember to connect to the Divine within. At the same time, there is reference to the wounded self, undergoing its illusion of separation, which is embelmatic of the evolutionary trials of human existence. The thorns seen in the trunk resonate with the sacrifices made through the aeons by a long lineage of priestesses, healers and female seers, and the great sacrifice also finds a reference in an allusion to the ruined Venus de Milo sculpture.
The image of this maimed sculpture, Venus de Milo, is also a theme throughout my work. It is for me about the disempowerment of women throughout our misogynist history. The snakes of Medusa on the head of the Great Mother here serve as warning that in our mortal lower selves, we have lost the ability to look upon our Divine Self, allowing ourselves to be cut off from Source, and seeing ourselves as separate from the Gods.
This series of magic lantern drawings that I made over the years was inspired by a technique many of us learned in kindergarten, playing with crayons and black paint. First drawing with colors, then covering with black and scratching through the surface to reveal the illumination beneath the darkness. This is a good metaphor for making art, for me, scratching below the surface, uncovering the luminous within the outer layers.
Triple Fold Goddess is a magic lantern painting done on acid free board in oil paint with bronze powder stamping.
Read more about my work in my artist statement, Creating Spiritual Art for the New Millenium and resume.
