" Our Lady of the Shards" is an evolving series of ceramic ICONS that began when I
found myself staring at a pile of shards of broken pots. I thought of how
archeologists might feel, sorting through the buried fragments of lives and
civilizations long lost. Piecing shards together to find the hands that made those
artifacts, the faces of the forgotten rising from the buried past?
Influenced by my interest in Catholic and other Shrines, I thought particularly of
those who were not honored but should be: the forgotten Midwives who brought
our ancestors into the world, the Wise Women and the Weavers and the Spinners,
the Spirits of Place and Goddesses and the Priestesses forgotten, erased, buried in
the debris of history. Their time has come to be seen and known again.
found myself staring at a pile of shards of broken pots. I thought of how
archeologists might feel, sorting through the buried fragments of lives and
civilizations long lost. Piecing shards together to find the hands that made those
artifacts, the faces of the forgotten rising from the buried past?
Influenced by my interest in Catholic and other Shrines, I thought particularly of
those who were not honored but should be: the forgotten Midwives who brought
our ancestors into the world, the Wise Women and the Weavers and the Spinners,
the Spirits of Place and Goddesses and the Priestesses forgotten, erased, buried in
the debris of history. Their time has come to be seen and known again.
OUR LADY OF THE MIDWIVES
A number of years ago I met a midwife who was retiring. Her hands had brought many children into this world, so I asked if I could take a cast of her hands. She took what she told me was the "Midwives Gesture". My Icon celebrates her life and work, and the lives of all Midwives going back into prehistory, the un-named ancestors who brought us here.
I reflect on the ongoing tragedy of patriarchal values, whereby the military, whereby technologies devoted to Death, are celebrated, funded excessively, endlessly mythologized. We tell our "his-story" in segments of wars and conquests, with civilizations somehow managing to occur in between the ambitions of warlords. What might be accomplished, if that preoccupation with war and conquest.........was less important than a preoccupation with the welfare of all Life?
Our museums and parks are full of famous Generals, but nowhere are there public monuments to midwives. How might we live, how might we act, if the welcomers of souls into this world were as celebrated, as honored, as remembered as those who are are experts at killing?
A number of years ago I met a midwife who was retiring. Her hands had brought many children into this world, so I asked if I could take a cast of her hands. She took what she told me was the "Midwives Gesture". My Icon celebrates her life and work, and the lives of all Midwives going back into prehistory, the un-named ancestors who brought us here.
I reflect on the ongoing tragedy of patriarchal values, whereby the military, whereby technologies devoted to Death, are celebrated, funded excessively, endlessly mythologized. We tell our "his-story" in segments of wars and conquests, with civilizations somehow managing to occur in between the ambitions of warlords. What might be accomplished, if that preoccupation with war and conquest.........was less important than a preoccupation with the welfare of all Life?
Our museums and parks are full of famous Generals, but nowhere are there public monuments to midwives. How might we live, how might we act, if the welcomers of souls into this world were as celebrated, as honored, as remembered as those who are are experts at killing?
More in the Series:
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The Memory Keeper II The Memory Keeper III Verity/Veritas
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Hecate The Weaver The Black Madonna
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Our Lady of the Desert Spring