Thursday, March 3, 2011

A few new masks

 "Isis"

 Sometimes I think the Archetypal realm comes dangerously close to opening a door stage left into my waking life.  I remember when I opened my gallery/performance space in 1998 I found that making a space was like an invocation to the Goddesses and Gods. In other words, "If you build it, They will come". My experience bears this out.........but just make sure it's a beautiful space, physically or psychically, with lots of humor, no assumptions, and try to get your ego out of the way as much as possible. I no longer can afford to have a gallery, so the art itself is the invitation ("invocation" is a great word, but sometimes sounds so "heavy". At least, that seems true today). And masks are the perfect invitations, because they are empty until they are worn, at which point, they invite the wearer/dancer/storyteller to enter their world, and allow their world to look out into this one through the eyes of the mask.

I don't have a stage, or cast, or building, but I'm inviting Story to use these masks.  So perhaps the best way to begin is with Goddess (Isis),  and the Butterfly Woman (Pollinator and Messenger)......and the Sacred Clown, keeper of the balance, humor, and the liminal, the keeper of the boundaries.  Does that make sense?
 "Butterfly Woman"

 
"Clown/Contrary"

 "Dragon Lady"
I'm not sure where the heck this scary looking Dragon Lady came from (well, I do have a cast of the Borg Queen that occasionally wants to become a mask)......but I figure she must have turned up just to make sure I have a few good personal boundaries as well! 


5 comments:

d page said...

I love the masks! I think Dragon Lady is beautiful too. It looks like she bears roots from the tree of life...

Lauren Raine said...

Thanks..........she's a strange one to me! I kind of think she's a protectress of some kind.

Rev. Priestess Dailey said...

Hi Lauren, it's Dailey. I danced in your Flora mask for Reclaiming Spiral Dance a few years back. I love these masks! Isis is my patron goddess and this mask makes me very happy. I also love the Dragon Lady. Reminds me of a dream I had in which I discovered there was a dragon sleeping deep within, who could create or destroy but who was too indiscriminate to be released, and so in the dream a bubbly lady in white fed me pacifying treats and brought in teachers to train the dragon spirit through many lifetimes until it could one day be released. Thanks for sharing!

Lauren Raine said...

Hey, Dailey, I remember you in that mask! How strange, because a friend just asked about the Flora mask....

Thanks for sharing about the Dragon Lady; hmm, maybe that's a good observation for me as well. I'm going to meditate on this a bit.

Many good wishes to you! Now that I think of it, I believe I used a cast of your beautiful face to make the Saraswati Mask - may this Goddess of Art and Truth and Beauty walk always with you!

Rev. Priestess Dailey said...

Yep that was me. Thanks :-)