OSHUN, AFRICAN GODDESS

Oshun, African Goddess carved by Robyn Gordon

OSHUN the African Goddess of beauty, love, prosperity, order and fertility.

Her name is synonymous with transformation.


"She is widely loved, as She is known for healing the sick and bringing fertility and prosperity, and She especially watches over the poor and brings them what they need. As Orisha of love, Oshun is represented as a beautiful, charming and coquettish young woman". 
Read more about her here and here.

Initially I was drawn to Oshun because she is  the mother of the birds and the fishes. Fish (my husband is a passionate  angler) and birds feature highly in our lives. At first I  knew only a smattering of facts gleaned in books but later the internet provided a deeper knowledge of her qualities and I became even more intrigued. 

I have a Brazilian friend living in the States who knows her as Oxum.  With the African diaspora Oshun was introduced to the Americas. Her name changes slightly from country to country but no matter where she is,  she is loved and respected.

Oshun, African Goddess carved by Robyn Gordon

THE STORY OF AN AFRICAN QUILT

My wood quilt has been a long time in the brewing ... the tinkering.....

the carving .... and finally the assembling.

I intended to take my time with it but a part of me kept niggling...

it ought to be finished by now.

"I really do prefer to give the ideas time to surface .... and I need to work repetitively with impulses to make them part of my vocabulary or language .... a way has to be found into the rhythm that works ... quite simply". - Sophie Munns

I found my rhythm as I was creating each "patch" of the wood quilt but when it came to putting them all together I lost my way and spent many weeks pondering. Eventually I decided not to "sew" the pieces together as originally planned because the quilt was busy enough and I glued them instead. Even then it was not quite right. Another few weeks of tweaking ensued. On the day I deemed it fit for the gallery it sold to a regular customer who just happened to email me on that very day. It was meant to be!

As with a patchwork quilt made of cloth this piece has memories and stories worked into each square. You can see a few of my ideas here. I kept in mind that in Africa nothing is wasted and had fun using found objects and rusty bits that had been lying around in the bottom of boxes. I also wanted to use elements that reminded me of Africa.

(The name for the piece came to me while I was assembling it, inspired by a favourite book ... The Story of an African Farm by Olive Schreiner)

Shards from an old African pot.

Pebbles, driftwood and shells from Transkei beaches.

Cowries symbolizing feminine energy and wealth.

White seed beads symbolizing purity and protection, faithfulness, spirituality, holiness.

A carved wooden sun bristling with nails for protection.

Black and white patterns which represent the contrast of:

dark and light

good and evil

male and female

SELF EXCAVATION ..... AND DIGBY

Somewhere along the line I gave up reading books ..... hand held books, that is .... and I allowed that gap of time to be taken up with reading on the internet. Now with all the power failures we are experiencing I am spending less time on the computer and more time finishing the half-read books on my bedside table. I'm also renewing my love for poetry...... Reading a poem here and there in the lamp light before falling asleep.

When Digby arrived he brought with him a little gift the breeders failed to mention. Besides the hernia and tummy upsets he had a ringworm infestation that had to be nipped in the bud before it got out of control.

Thus began the daily treatment baths and re-baths, washing and drying of doggy bedding, extra scrubbing of everything that could be scrubbed (with a little help from Digby) and extra hoovering and lifting of heavy things.

I bet you know where this is going! Of course I put my back out ...... and had no option but to slow down and read books that would soothe my feelings of overwhelm.

With the reading of inspiring books has come a phase of self excavation. These phases come in waves throughout my life and each time I excavate a little more. The excavation theme has overflowed into my carvings .... something that has surprised me.

I've since come to the conclusion that annoying happenings like power failures, water cuts and ringworms are not simply lessons in patience but they can also be positive catalysts for renewal and change .

Sighhhh ..... Well I have to think that or get completely bogged down with bitter feelings toward shady dog breeders and inefficient service providers ;-)

"There are very few human beings who receive the truth, complete and staggering, by instant illumination. Most of them acquire it fragment by fragment, on a small scale, by successive developments, cellularly, like a laborious mosaic" - Anais Nin

FINDING MY CREATIVE RHYTHM

This is the time of the year that I am at my creative best. Autumn and Winter in South Africa are my favourite seasons. It is warm carving outside in the courtyard .... unlike the scorching days of Summer. There is snow on the far reaches which means our nights and early mornings are pretty chilly but when the sun is out the days are bliss.



I've been observing the moon with Donna ...... finding my natural creative rhythm ....... and reconnecting with my "creative vision". It has been a wonderful period of experimentation.

"When we allow ourselves to experiment with the moon's timing the stress level is reduced and a sense of being in the flow is elevated." - Donna Drozda.




Between carving totems I have been trying out different ideas on small wood offcuts. Somewhere in the middle of these experiments it occurred to me to create a wooden quilt ..... a slow quilt, inspired by Jude's spirit cloths. Slow, in that I am just going to let it happen when it happens. The little wood samplers will accumulate and when I have enough I will join them somehow. It might just be a matter of glueing them to a board ... or stitching them together like a patchwork quilt ..... I'm playing with ideas and enjoying the dance.

"I really appreciated coming to recognize that there's no place to 'get to' as an artist, as an expressive being, there's simply the dance." - Donna Drozda




I finally managed to locate a copy of Etcetera by Sybella Court and I'm wallowing in the glorious pages. I'm inspired to photograph weathered tools and bits of wood ..... mine ..... and new found treasures.



I was very chuffed to find an old patinaed folk art doll in a junk store.

Meet Jasper, the visiting Burmese from next door. He's taking a chance with Ben and Bella around, but he's pretty wiley and swift on his feet.


I've just completed a totem I've called Prayers for our Daughters in response to Soraya's post about the genocide/gendercide in India.

COMPLETE

It's not often that I finish a piece and feel completely comfortable with it. Most times it takes a week or two to tweak and adjust before I'm satisfied. Maybe tomorrow I will feel differently but today I feel complete.

Wooden "door". 70cm x 66cm

THE JUNK COLLECTOR

I love sorting through all the junk I collect to use in my art, though it's not quite as exciting as foraging at flea markets and second hand stores to find it in the first place.

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"Whether we call it collecting, scavenging, accumulating, scrounging, gathering, or junking, its all about the urge to surround ourselves with our stuff, our loot, our stash, our hoard, our mother lode of treasures, and to reap the inspiration that these sometimes inexplicably iresistible objects provide."

" Whether the collected objects are actually used in works of art or merely provide inspiration, the synchronicity between Artist and Object is undeniable."

Quotes by Lynne Perrella from her wonderful book Art Making, Collections and Obsessions.

CREATIVITY AS SPIRITUAL PROCESS

After participating in Katherine Treffinger's, 'Art and Meaning' project an internet friend asked me to elaborate on the spiritual aspect of creating art. It's something I've pondered upon often over the last few years and I've wondered if it is a spiritual connection that I feel when carving ...or whether it's just a feeling of gratitude or elation that I'm able to escape into the art process and express myself this way.

An extract I read in The Well of Creativity by Michael Toms resonated with me. Michael was visiting an ancient Balinese village, famous for double-ikat weaving. He wondered why anyone would spend so long making something for so little return. It might take six months to make a small intricate piece of cloth, three feet long and about one foot wide. The ikat cloths and tapestries are sold to tourists and though they're expensive by Balinese standards the labor works out to about ten cents an hour. So it obviously wasn't being done for the money.

"So I found myself in this village where they did this work. I was talking to a Balinese man who had some command of English, and I realized as he was talking and explaining this piece of cloth, that to them the whole process of doing this was very much a part of their spiritual practice. It was like prayer."

"It was the prayer of doing it. It was like this realization of the idea of being one with your work and what that really is about."

The Well of Creativity is a series of interviews with well known creatives including Julia Cameron, Natalie Goldberg and Isabel Allende. It's one of those books that I'm getting more out of in the second reading.

"No traditional concept of God is necessary to succeed, only a sense that our personal creativity reflects that of the universe, and as we express our artistic impulses we come in touch with a spiritual world of infinite size and power." -- Michael Toms 

Found inscribed over a doorway at Westminster Abbey   "Of the craftsmen it may be said that in the handiwork of their craft is their prayer".

IT'S ALL ABOUT BALANCE

Having put the finishing touches to the door I was carving, I got the feeling that it would be a long time before I would be able to whip up enough enthusiasm to begin something new. It sometimes happens that way. Feeling stale, drained and perhaps a little disgruntled that the usual satisfaction one experiences when making art, is missing.



That was last week. I think I just needed a break from work because after a few days of doing mundane tasks around the house, like cleaning the fire place, tidying up mounds of fishing tackle and scrubbing the tiles in the shower, ideas are beginning to take form on their own without much prompting. Eight or ten sketches later I am looking forward to tomorrow when the long weekend is out of the way, the family is back at work and I have a big slice of silence (please?) to pull my thoughts into some order, decide on a form that I can cut out of the wood and carve whilst reaching a zone of contentment that restores balance to my life.



Carving is my meditation. It lulls me and makes me feel grounded and together. When I don't do it for a while I become restless so its good to get back into it again. It's all about balance. Some work, some play. Too much of one thing tips the scales and thats generally when I feel dissatisfied.



We were going to the coast today, chasing sardines with the rest of the tribe but at the last minute we decided that the crowds and traffic jams were not conducive to our idea of a restful long weekend.



Instead we headed out into the country to treat hubby to a belated father's day lunch at a little German Restaurant we often go to. He had been smacking his lips at the thought of Eisbein with very crispy crackling (crunch crunch) so we indulged him and it was well worth the drive.




It has been a busy weekend with a 63rd wedding anniversary luncheon, lots of visitors and visiting, too much cooking and eating. It will be a pleasure to get back into the work week tomorrow Restoring the balance!



This photograph was taken in the Nottingham Road area where we had Fathers Day lunch. I couldn't resist taking a photo of the family picnicing in spite of the No Picnic sign.

CREATIVITY IS BREWING

Glorious, glorious morning!

Hot frothy Ethiopian coffee. Early sunshine warming the step where I sit contemplating the day ahead.

Sounds of water rushing down stream. Though out of sight it is my constant lullaby. Loeries fly between the trees calling for their mates. Monkeys watch silently from deep within the wild fig tree, waiting and hoping a door will be left unattended.

For me it's a day for developing ideas! Having completed my last carving on the weekend, I'm paging through books and sketching ideas with a bubbly feeling of anticipation, knowing that the whole day lies open to play. Creativity is brewing!

..........Oh and Hubby is home from his fishing trip. Fresh Shad for supper!

THE DIALOGUE BEGINS

My first thought when I wake in the morning is, what will I create today? Art is the way I express myself. It creates a mind space where I feel most like Me.

I carve tall, wooden totems which "speak" of ancient tribes living close to nature. Tribes guided by seasonal changes, the fauna and flora and ancient legends which are handed down from one generation to the next. Tribes from an unknown land or lost civilization. Almost African but not quite.

My hope for this blog is for it to be an oasis of all things arty. What inspires me to create and what inspires all artists to do what they do. Favourite artists, books, quotations, internet links, ideas, tips, themes and different types of art, different mediums.....you name it, as long as it is art propelled.