Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Mandelas and Midwives

"Non-Local Quantum Mandela" (2010)

Finally sent off my Guggenheim application..........whew, what a lot of work! But good for me to really review my 5 year project as it required, giving better form to what is meaningful to me, what "strands" I've been following. It's been a long trip!


"Tse Che Nako, the Thought Woman, Weaving the World into Being" (2007)

Among the Navajo, to this day a bit of spider web is rubbed into the hands of infant girls, so that they will become Good Weavers, and Grandmother Spider Woman will bless them. Weaving, as interviews with many traditional Navajo (Dine`) weavers have revealed, is a spiritual practice for them, a practice for creating inner and outer balance. To "weave a beautiful pattern" is a metaphor for weaving a beautiful mind, a beautiful life.

Two Talking Masks: "The River Face" & "The Bone Goddess"

May we all rub a bit of spider web into the palms of our hands.


"Ancestral Midwives" (2009)

5 comments:

Valerianna said...

Oh, best of luck! I KNOW how intense those grant applications can be. And, having just received a grant to build my new studio, I am required to do a LOT of stuff that wouldn't normally be part of my process. So much so that I haven't been in the studio in days -weeks, even!!

I'm excited to share your blog as a teaching tool next semester for my Myth & Symbol class - wonderful for students to read the stories and see your interpretations, I'm sure they will be very inspired.

Wishing you a great big grant to continue your work.... I wonder what it was for, exactly?

Trish and Rob MacGregor said...

Wow, a Guggenheim? Do tell. How does this work? These images are just fabulous.

Lauren Raine said...

Congratulations on your grant to build a studio - how wonderful! And thanks, Valerianna, for including me in your class.

Trish and Rob........the grant application is for continuing my "Spider Woman's Hands" project, which I've pursued for, well, lots of years, officially and not so. I would love another chance to see where Spider Woman takes me next........

Gail said...

I always find great inspiration in your lovely stories. Blessed Be!!!

Lauren Raine said...

Thanks Gail! I do love that story about the Dine`.....