Authenticity, Character, Wisdom

In our study of artists, I learned about Emily Carr and Frida Kahlo, contemporaries of Georgia O’Keefe. Each painted before women artists were accepted, even before they could vote. Their work shares some qualities of line, form and color despite their separation in culture and geography.

They lived as painters, lived authentic lives when they had few rights as citizens. They lived their lives as they wished despite physical pain, loneliness and grudging acceptance in the male world of art.

How can I do less than follow their example, my triple goddesses of Mexico, USA and Canada?
artifact: Artist as Shaman gallery

Reflection on the Bone Gate

My image of the bone gate comes from one of Georgia O’Keefe’s many paintings of skulls, which she said were interesting shapes, not symbols of anything, just as her flowers were painted large so that people would stop to look at them.

I am learning to appreciate a thing for what it is, not only for what symbolism or metaphor I can derive from it. James Hillman says “A snake is not a symbol,” but a backbone, a gullet, a primal being living through the heat of the sun and its prey. This means that I may be able to learn to see myself for what I am, not a symbol or a metaphor, but a primal being of value, not for what I do but because I am.

Hillman. J, (1983) A snake is not a symbol. Inter Views as cited by Wikipedia retrieved 8/17/06 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Hillman