Director's Cut - Blake Prize

You may or may not recall that a piece I did was selected to be in the Director's Cut of the Blake Prize (ie shortlisted but not selected as a finalist). The gallery is now on line and you can visit by clicking on the link:  Blake Director's Cut

Blake Director's Cut

Blake Prize

No, sadly not a finalist again this year, but have been notified that I am an exhibitor in the associated Director's Cut Exhibition which will be online in January next year. The piece I entered is 'Shrine to the Truth, which I have posted before, but in case you didn't see it, here it is again. I will post again when the exhibition starts.

New Work

I mentioned before that I have been working on a piece that was inspired by a quote by Sue Monk Kidd: 'The truth will set you free...but first it will shatter the safe sweet way you live'. The truth that is being referred to, of course, is that God is not male (I can hear the sharp intake of breath from here), Christianity is not meant to be patriachal and boys are not 'better' in God's eyes than girls.

Since I have discovered the Goddess, I can attest to the truth of Monk Kidd's assertion. Very freeing, but a painful road to take: completely anti-establishment and therefore not likely to win too many friends in circles I have previously operated in (can still hear it!). So out on a limb a bit. It was very therapeutic to build all of that into an art work, pictured below. I have used a photo from a previous piece as a background and gone from there.



The other piece is not so in your face, but along the same lines. It is a rework of a previous painting. I have printed on silk and added embroidery, crochet, beads and a fabulous frame. I have decided to call it Ariadne's Lace in deference (again) to the wonderful woman from Greek mythology and also refers to the Great Mother, the one who spins the web of creation.

The Goddess

'Nother piece I recently painted is called 'Kwan-yin'. Every so often I feel a desire to paint, usually in watercolour and related stuff like acrylic inks - all pretty yummy. Kwan-yin is a Goddess of Asian Spirituality, associated with the peacock feather. She is meant to be a Goddess of watchfulness and caring. Its no coincidence that I am on my second reading of Sue Monk Kidd's Dance of the Dissident Daughter, and images like that are coming out.

Can't really marry all that up with my fundamental Evangelical upbringing in Patriachal Christianity. Odd place to be. So if you want to read a book that will change your life as a woman, read that one. As the author says: 'The Truth will set you Free, but first it will shatter the safe, sweet way you live.' (There is another work coming that relates to that quote). Love to hear from anyone who has read the book.

Reclaiming the Sacred Feminine

So, just finished reading 'the Goddess in the Gospels' by Margaret Starbird which is apparently the basis for Dan Brown's take on Christian History as we saw in 'The Da Vinci Code.' Makes for interesting reading, especially as it follows on (for me) from 'The Dance of the Dissident Daughter' by Sue Monk Kidd. I was brought up in maintstream Christianity to believe in a male God, which has been a constant bug-bear for me. How can half the world's population (i.e. women) be also-rans in a religion that claims to be the salvation of the entire human race?

Can't fault Sue Monk Kidds book at all - it is based on sound research and talks about the way the patriachal church has managed to become the accepted Status Quo. Her book managed to pull me back from the brink of turning away from the church. My only criticism of Starbird's book is that she tends to regard inicidents occuring in America as being universal indicators of the state of the church, which therefore weakens her argument for those of us that live outside the States. Sorry, Margaret, but there it is. Other than that, I have to say, that the idea that Christ and the Magdalene were married and therefore together a truer metaphorical picture of the church makes perfect sense to me. 'Splains alot even. Adds weight to the Biblical declaration that Christ has personal knowledge of everything we experience and therefore understands our throughts, fears and 'temptations'. How can a single, celibate man really do that? So, at the risk of being ex-communicated or burnt at the stake or something, I have to thoroughly recommend both of these books and the ideas they present.

Turns out that the power we have always suspected is lurking in the female psyche actually is; the intuition we've often ignored is a Spiritual prompting and our affinity for Mother Earth is built into our genes. No wonder the patriachal powers that be want to suppress it!