My inspiration for this series title “Sacred Vessels” come from my thoughts about healing. I look at materials I used in creating this series, it is about the wood that I choose, wood that had a previous use and spent time in the desert weathering the elements over many seasons. It has marinated in the DNA of the desert and recorded the desert experience both day and night.
Spiritually speaking, I have explored the nature of healing and the influence of light to the process. God is described as Light in many of the major religions. Light plays an important role in my work. Most of my pieces are infused with translucent phosphorescence layers. These layers emit a light, a glow in dark and the darker the setting the stronger the light.
I remember an evening where my mind and soul wandered into a thick darkness, a wilderness place that I came across looking for answers to prayer and meditation on healing I was seeking. In the heavy darkness, one of my pieces provided enough light to refuel faith and hope.
Taos is spiritually magical and has special places of healing and mission Chimayo being one of those healing places. I embed soil I have collected from Mission Chimayo within all my artwork.
I like to believe that my pieces help contemplate spirituality. That although God is invisible his manifestation can be perceived by the power of Light, the emotion of love. and His healing nature.
Finally, music influence my work and remembered the message from the group Jars of Clay.
2 Cor 4:7
If you only look at us, you might well miss the brightness. We carry this precious Message around in the unadorned clay pots of our ordinary lives.
A message is embedded in our ordinary lives….we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.
I am reminded as an artist that I have Light to share.
Spiritual objects help the viewer focus onto what is holy and mysterious. Several of my new pieces remind me of a primitive Monstrance. The spirit hovers above the earth, connecting what is holy with whom is holy.
My mind is impressed with the thoughts of healing the body, mind, and spirit. We must use all that is available to heal.
We pray and beg for our bodies to be healed and have faith that God will answer our prayers for healing. “God…get me out of this pain and my death”. And the prayer comes back answered in a way we do not expect when God answers us with …”I’ll get you through”. “Lord heal my body, and He healed my mind.
The desert DNA is present in this piece. My imagination took me back to that time and wilderness place.
In my dream, I am alone in an ocean desert. The moonless sky helps shield the pitch black sky protecting it from celestial lights. The sound of silence is deafening. I am lost, helpless and desperate for a sign. Hope becomes fear as the wilderness becomes unrecognizable and my faith is my only assurance until the Encounter.
“The Encounter I” is the working title of this mixed media piece. The cast resin molded wings are cast with phosphorescent coloring-aqua-sky blue and green. The wings are airbrushed with pearlescent lacquers and additional clear resin cast is cast on top.
I like the idea of the mixed media pieces hanging on a wall with the LED lighting illuminating the work. I love how you can apply a “fade” on the lights as the LED lights cycles through an array of colors. One of my personal favorites is the yellow-orange colorization.
This particular suite of work is entitled “Strangers in a Strange Land”. We all experience the unknown in our daily walk of life, some through a death experience or in a meditative state. When we are lost, we seek the familiar and in our desperation, we cry out for a sign. This the first in the series of these sculptures. The each wing is 17″ and it the photo above, the wings are verticle emulating that angelic being that becomes a light we follow.
Our personal journeys take us to many places. At times we find ourselves along paths that are unmarked and without light to guide us. We are forced to confront fears that only darkness can produce. But we are driven to explore, it is part of our DNA as humans whether it is reaching to the stars or the depths of the ocean or… the boundaries of our imagination. We begin the journey as children: bringing natural curiosity as artists, scientist, and philosophers.
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A new series of work titled “Beneath the Darkness” reveals imaginary desert and ocean realms. Places and moments of time where light penetrates the darkness providing hope, security, and inspiration. A concealed LED light illuminates the cast resin layers in the cross-like shape and radiates a light within the steel and plexiglass base.
“Seeking the Sacred”
I had a sense of creating something sacred, perhaps a holy vessel, something that can produce a sense of peace and maybe miraculous healing. My own faith says that is possible. Some say that prayer is talking to God and meditation is listening to God. I hope the piece becomes that beacon providing the light into a voyage to a sacred harbor.
Two in a series: Resin-Steel & Light 19″x 11″x4″ See at the Ice House
First Friday April 7th 2017.
My latest pieces explore the contrast of elements; where sky and earth meet
and where light penetrates the darkness. Translucence layers accentuate the
glimmering hues of color that shift in the light. Layers of translucent resins
create dream like landscapes and mirages. Mirages are deceptive and the small
nature of these pieces can deceive the viewer looking at the objects. I like to
imagine vast vistas of the sky and layers of clouds captured in a moment of time.
“Desert Passages”
Inspiration for this new work comes from the desert and the
sea and where the sky meets earth and where light is
captured in a space of “luminous colored layers”. It
also comes from deeper inside-from the DNA of the
desert and sea and from the inner being of who I am.
“Am I a mirage”…Is a question that comes to mind.
“Desert Seasons”
Summer is passing in the desert and the light is shifting
higher in the sky…we transition to fall-then to winter-back to spring and then to summer. The seasons of the desert have one thing in common…Light.
As the seasons change, I am transitioning into the hot summer days and nights. My spring work included some of my largest pieces including “Lost Memories” a 7′ casting into the live edge of a Sycamore slab.
Late spring and going into the summer has me working on a series of cast resin cubes. I have describe some of my pieces as “terraforms” …worlds within worlds and “other worldly”. I see vast desert and ocean wilderness areas that have been part of my entire life. Dry clouds over a horizon, light dancing off the morning water and a millions stars illuminating the night sky.
The desert has played a pivotal role throughout history including the flight of a group of immigrants redeemed from slavery and promised a” land” of milk and honey. A visible sign of an invisible God is seen in the distance.The column penetrates layers of clouds lighting the sky for all to see and never leaving them-strengthening the promise made long ago. Exodus 13:20-22
Set on lighted platforms or as a stand alone piece in a garden window and sills. The cubes absorb light energy and exchange it as luminescence, eerie illumination produced. StoryBox-creations as An Obliq Artist
The sycamore slab takes on a new life juxtaposed against a corrugated steel background, like an ancient relic, a religious icon illuminating a dark outdoor space. There is new meaning in this space, the context has changed-the space has been transformed and in its center is the light emanating from piece “Lost Memories”
The wood was termite infested, crooked, twisted and weathered in the Arizona desert sun, I was drawn to this 10′ sycamore slab for those reasons-the greater the deterioration, the great the opportunity to transform the piece and claim it as yours.
I saw the wounds to this tree, the borings into its flesh and perhaps was the debilitating condition that ended the life of this magnificent tree. I was drawn casting resins into the “live” edge of the slab, the process of restoring, is almost fetish like and a driving influence in my work. The edge of this piece with translucent layering of resin casts with phosphorescent and pearlescent powders, has become the focal point of this piece. Illuminating the edge with LED lighting provides an other worldly appearance, confronting the viewer.
During the process of creating, there is a time to let the “muse” take over… that involves letting go of my desire and my efforts and creating what God has called me to create. Allowing faith to infuse my art is a major part of my creating process.
When I am alone working in my studio, listening to the silent sounds of the desert, I ponder so many questions, themes and challenges. Lifeless wooden slabs confront me in the studio-rough surfaces-crevices and live edges. Hostility is depicted by the jagged, sharp pitted edges as well as the size of the piece that confronts me. This lifeless but beautiful fragment of a once prosperous living entity; a majestic Sycamore tree existing in the wilderness was my task for reclamation. I am certain, that when God saw my life- He saw the same challenge.
Phil 2:13 For God is working in you-giving you the desire and power to do what pleases…Him.
A lost memory recaptured on recent trips to Taos, NM and Barcelona, Spain. A spiritual journey began with visits to churches and basilicas in Barcelona, Spain. Sagrada Famila is famous worldwide a church that has been under construction for over a 100 years and complete by 2025…they hope.
Mission church Chimayo, outside of Taos is one of the best examples of an early Spanish Colonial mission. In this case, it is a “healing” place, like Sedona, AZ and other healing places in the southwest. Chimayo mission is the site of physical and mental healings, some say miracles. We often mistake problems that require a spiritual solution-not a financial one.
Inside mission Chimayo are 2 separate rooms-in one, crutches hang on every wall, a testament of physical healing. From this room, you enter another room-low slung and no bigger than 10’x10′-central to this room is the small well in the middle of the floor of this room filled with the “healing” dirt from the land. Visitors are encouraged to take some of the dirt…Sandra did.
My traditional view is that church buildings were built to inspire us to focus on God. Spires, stained glass windows, and items on the altar were created to depict religious themes and to point our lives away from the earthly realm and focus on a heavenly realm.
A limited series of work, I created with my favorite mixed media-Wood-Resin-Steel & Light and bringing into existence my own version of a “monstrance”.My vessels display something holy-fragments and I choose the land, sky, water and an unseen world. There is a place where beings in the Rio Grande gorge ascend seeking a light from a wooden shard hovering above them and containing the healing power of the land. Light emitted from the piece breaks the darkness surrounding it. I think of the opportunity to spend moments of meditation during this period of light… a time of prayer and being thankful for all that God has created.
A “show” was just a passing thought one late winter night among unfinished pieces in my new studio space. My new work needed to be shown; Obliq Art had not put on a show in 16 months. I thought of all the good times we had and miss so many of the artists and collectors and just friends who made Obliq Art a regular stop on First Friday…and that thought was sown into the universe that night. “The right people will show up”. “The right space will show up”. Sometimes you have to walk in faith.
My work was about restoration of wood and about adding a different dimension to wood. Clear and colorized resins were pour into termite caused borings. Phosphorescent resins casts were added as well as casts with pearlescent powders. Lost Memories was created this past winter. A termite infested, crooked, twisted and weathered Sycamore slab that spent much time in the Arizona desert sun. A perfect piece to restore and reclaim. Another thought…Lives are like that.
Pete Deise and I have become friends over the last year. He reminds me of the surfer who first surfed Mavericks alone for years-a lonely pioneer living a pioneers life. Who else creates massive steel sculptures in an outdoor studio setting and at 115 degrees? I’m infatuated with his new work and personally I want to see his work have a larger footprint in downtown Phoenix especially in some of the downtown buildings and projects I am involved with, like the Jackson Street warehouses I am selling. Setting his shows are a little different than hanging paintings in a typical gallery setting, it was fun and challenging putting together this show.
LunarJustin Queal and I have been getting to know each other, its been about 2-3 years. The Myopia show is our first time showing together. We’ve broke bread, set this show, gave him a lead on a potential commission (which he got) and spent time together talking about art. Again another artist that I admire and getting to know him and his lovely artist wife, Abbey. Its a rich life when you have relationships like this. Flourish comes to mind when I think of Justin’s future.
Radiant Energy Cheryl BrandonConstance McBride and Cheryl Brandon have been in my consciousness for a while, especially Constance whom I first met at Obliq Art at the Arizona Center. Met Cheryl at the Fred Tieken’s Az 45 show in his gallery in Paradise Valley. Two very distinct ceramic artists with a wonderful following. Great contrast to the large pieces. We are resetting the gallery and their pieces in the space with more room to “breathe” and visible 360 degrees.
Constance McBrideSomeone asked me, “When are your shows”? I guess the short answer is “When I want”. Look forward to seeing how Obliq Art evolves. The Myopia show has allowed me and the other artist to experiment in the space.
The show opens again on Third Friday, March 18 at 7 pm and from noon to 5 PM on Saturday. Lots of parking behind the space as well as street and park parking.
New City Studio- 1300 N. Central Ave-across the street from the main Library and adjacent to Margaret Hance Park.
Sacred Vessels: 