HEALING GODDESS

 Newly completed Healing Goddess (next to Nigerian helmet mask) by Robyn Gordon

"Our work as artists is courageous and scary. There is no brief that comes along with it, no problem solving that's given as a task....An artist's work is almost entirely inquiry based and self-regulated. It is a fragile process of teaching oneself to work alone, and focusing on how to hone your quirky creative obsessions so that they eventually become so oddly specific that they can only be our own." - Teresita Fernandez

Since I've just completed carving my healing goddess I thought I would share with those interested about what initially inspired me to carve her. The new carving is a late addition to a series of Healing Goddesses I carved several years ago.

From an old series several years ago.

A primitive Songye figure or Nkisi (from the Democratic Republic of the Congo) started my thought process about doing a series.

Image courtesy of Boris Kegel-Konietzko

I thought he was rather ugly at first though some would disagree because he has a raw, primitive energy and charm and in any case he was not created to be a work of art but an Nkisi. An Nkisi  is a power figure that is believed to have protective powers for the owner and his family. 

Wrapped around the large figure are a number of smaller figures which could be handed out to those who needed protection from evil or misfortune. When the need for protection had disappeared the small figures would then be returned  to the bigger figure. 

I fell in love with this Songye Ceremonial vessel. It is a gourd with an inner basket (containing potatoes, I think) and several miniature power figures attached to the outside.

I think the vessel has a feel-good quality about it as opposed to the slightly uneasy feeling I get from the Nkisi. 

Nestled amidst the wood shavings on my worktable .... a favourite place to photograph my carvings.

It was important to me that my Healing Goddesses exuded a feel good energy and I can only hope that I've achieved that. It was certainly therapeutic to carve them.

THE SOFT UNFOLDING OF WAVES

We have returned from three glorious weeks at the Wild Coast, feeling replenished and at peace with the world. 

 Most days were soft and meditative, filled with winter sunshine and the hushed unfolding of waves on the sand.

I learned a new word from Mo yesterday.
Apricity: The word apricity represents a simple and familiar yet a very specific phenomenon - the sun's warmth on a cold winter's day. (Click on the word to read further)

It seems appropriate to introduce the word here since, the world and his wife..... dog.....goat and cow, within a kilometer's radius, seemed to wander down to the beach to stand in the sun, .....relishing apricity on a winter's day.

I walked around this bull several times, clicking my camera and he remained  unperturbed. Just a twitch of tail and ear.

I can't imagine our holidays without the resident dogs. They add much joy and tail wagging to our days. 

The sea poems of Pablo Neruda also seem appropriate here. Follow the link if you wish to read a few more.

The Sea by Pablo Neruda

I need the sea because it teaches me.
I don't know if I learn music or awareness,
if it's a single wave or it's existence,
or only it's harsh voice or it's shining
suggestion of fishes and ships.
The fact is that until I fall asleep,
in some magnetic way I move in
the university of the waves.

It's not simply the shells crunched
as if some shivering planet
were giving signs of it's gradual death;
no, I reconstruct the day out of a fragment,
the stalactite from the silver of salt,
and the great god out of a spoonful.

What it taught me before, I keep. It's air
ceaseless wind, water and sand.

It seems a small thing for a young man,
to have come here to live with his own fire,
nevertheless, the pulse that rose
and fell in it's abyss,
the crackling of the blue cold,
the gradual wearing away of the star,
the soft unfolding of the wave
squandering snow with it's foam,
the quiet power out there, sure
as a stone shrine in the depths,
replaced my world in which were growing
stubborn sorrow, gathering oblivion,
and my life changed suddenly:
as I became part of it's movement.

Need I say, this weathered plank and broken shell returned home with me

"Among the things the sea throws up,
let us hunt for the most petrified,
violet claws of crabs,
little skulls of dead fish,
smooth syllables of wood,
small countries of mother-of-pearl;
let us look for what the sea undid
insistently, carelessly,
what it broke up and abandoned,
and left behind us."

- Forget about Me by Pablo Neruda

More chiton shells to add to my collection

Limpets doing what limpets do.

 An ox drawn sled (made out of branches) carries fire wood home

Cows in the mist

 Fish for supper.

A misty end to the day

The  SILVER SUMMER show begins tomorrow at FILLINGDON FINE ART in PIDDINGTON, UK. Details here.  I have a few pieces on the show, including the tall story panel below.

"Stop measuring days by degree of productivity and start experiencing them by degrees of presence." - Alan Watts

NEW WORK at FILLINGDON FINE ART

"Strandloper III" by Robyn Gordon

The daffodils are out just in time for the opening of  the "Primary Palette"exhibition at Fillingdon Fine Art. I'm delighted to have 3 pieces in this exhibition including the piece, Strandloper III, above.

The meaning of strandloper ....

1. a member of a Koisan people who lived on the southern shores of southern Africa from prehistoric times until the second millennium AD.

2. a person who collects items on the shore; a beachcomber.

warmly invites you to  "Primary Palette" an exhibition of original paintings, sculpture, ceramics, jewellery and craft from Saturday 11th - Saturday 25th April 2015 daily 10am- 4pm at Fillingdon Farm, Piddington, High Wycombe,  Bucks, HP14 3BL, UK Other times by appointment www.fillingdon.com This exhibition features work in the three primary colours of red, blue and yellow by new and regular artists from Kenya, Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa; across the media of oils, pastels, bronze, stone, porcelain, silver, shell and many others.  Monochromatic balance is added with a new collection of drawings by master draftsman Arthur Azevedo.  As always there is a wide variety on display to appeal to all tastes and pockets, and each unique, handmade piece has been personally selected to ensure the ultimate in quality and originality.  Entry is free and refreshments are on offer.  A donation is appreciated for our chosen charity Farm Africa (reg. charity number 326901). The work is available to view on our website, which is constantly being updated.  We look forward to welcoming you, and please feel free to tell like-minded friends! For directions and a map visit our Contact Us page

CATCHING UP

It's been a busy few weeks amidst a long heat wave 
Today seems to be a little cooler 
but I won't hold my breath 
since every day has turned into a scorcher

The storm that didn't...

Bella and Digby are relishing a cooler morning
Diggers doesn't particularly enjoy the heat

This week, I worked hard getting commissions ready 
for fumigation before shipping them out 
across the world to two different continents
It's a good feeling knowing my totems 
are travelling to countries I long to visit. 

 Packed for fumigation

When it's too hot to work I have a good excuse to catch up with my reading 

Wild by Cheryl Strayed,  Notes from an Exhibition by Patrick Gale,  West with the Night by Beryl Markham,  Cold Tangerines by Shauna Niequist. Click to read reviews.

... a little journaling 

.... and endless discussions about wedding plans with the bride-to-be

 Wedding chapel at iNsingizi

It's a relief that we've booked the venue
the photographers
the cake
the dj

..... and that's as far as we've got
but it's a start

 View from the chapel deck

Inside the chapel

A beautiful setting for a wedding

It's going to be a busy year!

YOUR OWN WAY OF LOOKING AT THINGS

Inner Journey by Robyn Gordon

"In order to accomplish an experience, you have to have a chance to dance with it. You have to have a chance to play, to explore. Then each style of exploration that takes place is a different manifestation, we could say. Nevertheless, it is all part of one big game." -- Chogyam Trungpa

It's a good feeling to be surrounded by my totems again. 
Just before the big clean-up, 
I was sitting quietly
trying to trace back to a time when I didn't feel
that something was missing from my art practice
and it dawned on me 
that I was no longer surrounded by my own art. 
I've been setting my totems free too soon 
and feeling empty without them.

Stillness by Robyn Gordon

There are now three completed pieces watching over me, 
a work in progress nestles on the workbench

and the missing spark has returned.

"Stop thinking about art works as objects, and start thinking about them as triggers for experiences."  -- Brian Eno

Party Girl by Robyn Gordon

When I met my muse  by William Stafford

I glanced at her and took my glasses
off -- they were still singing. They buzzed
like a locust on the coffee table and then
ceased. Her voice belled forth, and the
sunlight bent. I felt the ceiling arch, and
knew that nails up there took a new grip
on whatever they touched. "I am your own
way of looking at things", she said. "When 
you allow me to live with you, every
glance at the world around you will be
a sort of salvation." And I took her hand.

Inner Journey by Robyn Gordon


" .... and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own." 
-- Mary Oliver (from The Journey, here)

"Do you keep your creative work close enough? Is it always available? Keep it so close that when you turn around you run right into it!"  -  Eric Maisel

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