
It also may be the voice of the weaver’s prayers and dreams"

I remember emerging from graduate school with a body of work ("A House of Doors" and "When the Word for World was Mother") very much concerned with metaphysical and spiritual exploration, and I felt angry at the resistance I received in the program for my subject matter. This was the height of "New Age", and I had an enormous desire to find out who, what, and where art and spirituality were united in contemporary life, outside of the church, of course.
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"Hands" by Lorraine Capparell (1987) |
.....from the Gospel of Thomas
So I did what I've always done, took off travelling on a "vision quest" that lasted almost 5 years, visiting California and New York City, and points in between. The result was a collection of interviews I intended to make into a book called "Seeing in a Sacred Manner: Interviews with Transformative Artists". The book was never published, although some of the interviews were published in small journals with the kind permission of those artists who granted them to me, among them Alex and Allyson Grey (The Sacred Mirrors), Rafael Ortiz (Physio-Psycho-Alchemy), Rachel Rosenthal (Pangaean Dreams), Kathleen Holder (The December Series), and others. In retrospect, I wish I could have made their conversations more available to other artists, because what they had to say was so profoundly inspiring to me. Some of the interviews are on my website https://www.laurenraine.com/seeing-in-a-sacred-manner.html
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Reflections from a stained glass window |
Many artists in our world have an "identity crisis". We are surrounded with structures that say art is important - schools, museums, galleries, magazines, books, churches. And yet, a contemporary practicing artist is often not given credit for pursuing her or his profession, often not seen as doing something with social significance. I cannot tell you how many times people have asked me what I do, and afterwards responded with "so what's your real job?". "Real job?" We define value in monetary terms, and equate quality or "professionalism" to how much money a "product" makes - which is an insane way to evaluate the "worth" of an innovative work of art, or any innovative work for that matter. Or the value of a person.
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Illuminated manuscript by Hildegard Von Bingham (11th century) |
....David Michael Levin
I often think of Bali, the amazing way art making, ritual making, music making are so much a part of daily life. From the woven offerings that women make first thing in the morning to the elaborate festivals held on specifically auspicious days. For the Balinese, art is a devotional activity, constantly renewed within the traditions of their Hindu religion. Certainly, our modern "identity crisis" would not be understood by such a traditional society, the questioning of "what is art", the sometimes arbitrary separation we seem to make between "high" and "low" arts, "fine arts" and "crafts", etc. I'm not sure, after 50 years of being an artist, I understand it myself. I was in Bali 25 years ago, and I remember feeling quite at home there, and when I studied mask making, I observed the flow of art, ritual, and culture there. It seemed seamless to me. I have not been back to Bali since then; I hope things have not changed.
So what is "art process"? It helps to think of it as a spiritual practice. You don't have to live in a traditional culture like Bali, or even be affiliated with a traditional religion, to give the making of art that devotional respect. I think if one considers it in that light, it becomes so much easier! Making art gets me out of the tyranny of my mind, the "laundry lists" and preoccupation with money - and into a greater world of seeing, sensing, color, light. Of being. I can engage with my ever evolving, personal, and yet archetypal, symbol system. The emergent place. Sometimes (like with the "Prayers for the Dying" series I did for my brother) it helps me to understand grief, to heal emotional losses or conflicts. Increasingly, I am interested in sharing the creative process with others, finding ways to connect with others in creative community; in this light, it becomes a form of entrainment, of ritual, of prayer.
"It’s easier for people to anthropomorphize something abstract. That is where the metaphor of Gaia comes in - it is easier to think of a mother, a nurturing parent. By giving a name to it, you can talk to Her. That’s the purpose. Otherwise, you are lost in abstractions, and lose the emotional content of the issue."
I am reflecting much on the past these days, and take the liberty here of sharing (below) the Introduction to the (unpublished) book of interviews I wrote back in 1990. Perhaps I've mellowed, and understand things more comprehensively since then - still, it's good to revisit.........Rachel Rosenthal
"The Sacred Mirrors" Alex Grey and Allyson Grey
"Everything was made for the greater meaning and use of the the tribe. A spoon was more than a spoon, and a sacred pot was also used to store grain in - because they understood that there had to be a weaving between the material world and the other worlds in order to live right and well. An artist was one of those who did the weaving."
...... Sarah Mertz
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Asherah, Lauren Raine (2024) |
"Vision that responds to the cries of the world and is truly engaged with what it sees is not the same as the disembodied eye that observes and reports, that objectifies and enframes. The ability to enter into another's emotions, or to share another's plight, to make their conditions our own, characterizes art in the partnership mode. You cannot define it as self-expression - it is more like relational dynamics.......Partnership demands a willingness to conceive of art in more living terms.
It is a way of seeing others as part of ourselves."
.........Suzi Gablick (The Re-Enchantment of Art) (1989)
"Between Land and Sea", Installation by Caroline Beasley Baker
Caroline Beasley Baker (Interview, 1989)