New Masks for Summer Workshops

Butterfly Dream/Pollinator Mask

I'm looking forward to the workshops I'm teaching at Brushwood and at Peters Valley, and to explore the Storytelling Segments of those workshops I made a few new masks that are, perhaps, more psychological than mythic.  I like them, and wait to see what stories they have to tell through the people who will be taking the workshops, what their voices are!

Fragmenting Mask

?

Update on the Temple of Sekhmet

I'm delighted to have been given a residency at the Temple  of Sekhmet   in Nevada (not far from Las Vegas) on the 17th to 26th of April.  

I'll be teaching a Masks of the Goddess mask making weekend workshop there for women.  (I love especially doing workshops where the participants can stay overnight, and "incubate" the work together).  

Looking forward to meeting the people at the Temple, which is also a major center for Peace Activism, and meeting the Goddess of the Desert.

Image of "Sekhmet" courtesy Abbi Spinner McBridge

  "Om Sekhmet" Invocational Music  by Abbi Spinner McBride

"The Transformative Mask" - Mask Making

The TRANSFORMATIVE  MASK

Working with Masks and  Myth

"Our work was not to re-enact the ancient myths, but to take those myths to their next level of evolutionary unfolding. Artists are the myth makers."

 Katherine Josten,  Founder,  THE GLOBAL ART PROJECT

Every mask is the beginning of a story, because each mask is inhabited by a being waiting to reveal itself, whether a universally recognizable archetype, or an eccentric,  very personal inner persona that can communicate in surprising ways.  Masks can heal by speaking with a voice that we can't, and masks can provide an opportunity for transpersonal experience as well, when we engage with sacred and universal archetypes.   In traditional cultures, such as Bali, sacred masks were viewed as a means for the divine - the gods, goddesses, ancestors and animal powers - to bless the living through ritual theatre.

Making a mask is a process, but it's only part of the process - those who will use the mask complete the journey.  And because the "spirits of the masks" come from the Mythic Realm, there is really no end to the journey at all.  Just a circle of new telling.

In my workshops, we learn to sculpt a theatrical mask from our faces, explore personally significant stories and symbols, and learn approaches to storytelling with masks, with discussion about community performance and ritual theatre.  I've found it's best to "invite the spirit of the mask" by beginning with a shared "Shrine".  Participants  bring objects that are personally  sacred and meaningful.  Our "Invocation" is sometimes a creative visualization exercise.    After we've created a "Circle" to work in, we "get plastered" in pairs as we take casts of our faces with plaster impregnated bandages. These will become plaster positives on which more durable leather masks can be then modelled.  

Plaster  casts can also be used to create masks and sculpture from clay and other media.  See below for a few examples from other students.

Preparing materials

Taking Face cast

Ready to remove

Casts of class members, Kripalu Institute

Modelling and shaping mask with Leather

  

Embellishing
(Courtesy Nancy Solomon)

Finished Wearable Leather Mask
(courtesy Barbara Gregson)

Casting Mask in Clay

Cast in Clay made into Personal Icon
(courtesy Lorraine LeConte)

Leather sculpture with Torso cast

 With gratitude to Nancy Solomon for the kind use of her photographs (copyright N.Solomon 2010)