Skip to main content

Love/Rage: Goddess


A virtual show at the UMVA Gallery
Co-curated by Ann Tracy and Christine Sullivan

This show, originally scheduled for May of 2020, was cancelled on the brink of the pandemic. All of the submissions were in, and we were making plans for the First Friday Reception, always a treat but even more so in warm spring weather!
Social upheaval was front and center in 2020. In many circumstances, the clashes already inherent in our culture were amped up to devastation. We were forcibly reminded that the economic fallout of the pandemic is disproportionately endured by women, people of color, and LGBTQ+ . BUT, the Goddess always rises, and we looked at the 2021 vision of the show with new eyes. In response, we modified our original call for submissions, and invited artists to show us the Goddess “however you perceive her.”
 
We are beyond thrilled by the response – this show displays an amazing range of gifts and perspectives from artists in many media. For a glimpse of their thoughts, I invite you to reflect on the statements accompanying the art.  The curators are very grateful to UMVA for its support and carrying on through 2020, and send our sincerest thanks to all of the artists participating.
“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together”
                                                                                                     African proverb

************

Susannah - 24 x 24" - mixed media - $850

Meditations on Being - 30 x 24" - Mixed media - $950

Maya Kuvaja
In my Deconstructing Venus series, the female subjects of classical paintings as illustrated by male artists, are taken out of their original context depicting mythology, history or moral lessons. I layer the figures with found collage material, texts, maps, diagrams, images to create a new narrative. Their revised stories are a new postmodern interpretation of the classical female figure from the perspective of a contemporary woman painter. My process incorporates multiple layers of collage materials on birch plywood. I use various mixed media techniques including drawing with dry media, transparent glazes and opaque acrylic and oil paint. Each layer either obscures or reveals layers beneath in a process of discovery and letting go.
https://www.instagram.com/mayakuvaja/?hl=en                      (207)239-1811

************

Broken Beauty I - 22 x 30" - $2500
Donna Gordon
Over the past several months I’ve been creating figurative monotypes, making use of reduced versions of my 24” x 36” drawings. The addition of viscosity (sticky ink rolled over oily ink) on the monotypes enables me to repeat forms and break down pieces of the human body.  Some of the prints mimic Roman and Greek friezes, in an attempt to rearrange arms and legs to deconstruct the figure.  

Some of the results are rough like stone, others smoother, in an attempt to show what’s natural, broken, and beautiful.  The singling out of multiple shapes, and pieces of shapes, definitely describes some of the fragmentation I feel as a wife, mother, sister, daughter, friend.  As an individual in the world.  I definitely experience moments of rage and passion.  Outrage, sensuality, fierceness, compassion. 
There are probably many definitions of what a goddess might be.  I know as a woman and as an individual in the world, there is rage that comes with love and the need to transcend one’s own pain in order to minister to the pain of others.  Perhaps this is both the height and depth of humanness.  Perhaps it is compassion that gives us super-human strength, so powerful, deep, and self-sacrificing that it might dare to compare being mortal with that of being a goddess?  
************
Dread of a Dream Half Remembered
Victoria Cleary

Dread of a Dream Half Remembered is inspired by the story of Daphne and Apollo from Greek mythology. Daphne, a free-spirited nymph, shuns the idea of matrimony and vows to live a celibate, solitary life in the forest. Apollo becomes enchanted by her, and like many of Daphne’s suitors before, she rejects him. Apollo, bewitched by Eros’s arrow, will not take no for an answer. When Daphne realizes Apollo will catch her, she begs her father, the river god Peneus, to free her from Apollo’s insistence and a life she does not want to live. Peneus takes pity on his daughter, and transforms her into a laurel tree. Though rooted to the ground, Daphne is able to continue a virginal life in the forest she loves. This piece is about the choices a woman makes for herself, and the price that she is sometimes forced to pay for the power over her own life.

************

Yemaya, Protector of Mothers and their Children
Digital - $150


Lesley Mac Vane

Yemaya (Yemoja) is one of the Ocean Mother Goddesses from the West African Yoruba region. She is the protector of women and the mother spirit. This photograph, portrayed by a mother nursing her child safe within her arms, represents the nurturing spirit of Yemaya. She gives the viewer a sense of strength and power as she creates, with her eyes, a protective barrier for her child. You feel that no matter what might be out there, the child will be safe. As a mother, I understand the power of Yemaya and how that power transcends to all women who give birth. It is magical and defies description. It is the ultimate in what it means to connect to another human.

************


Bronze Beauty - 6 x 4" - Gouache and Ink - $125



Miriam - 24 x 18" - Linocut - $400


Joyce Ellen Weinstein

According to the Hebrew bible, MIRIAM took a leadership role in all she did, most especially her essential assistance in helping her people cross the desert, escaping their slavery. The vine stock, in the lower left side of this work, represents the law with its three branches, and the grapes being the righteous souls of each generation. The cup would hold the endless supply of water that sustained her wandering people. Dancing, holding her timbrels, we can imagine MIRIAM leading the women after her. She exemplified and was a model for female empowerment.

Like a caryatid come to life, my sculpted looking BRONZE BEAUTY appears to have the ability to support great weight, be it physical, emotional or psychological. Nevertheless, she is a feminine beauty. Her apparent strength and gorgeous skin tones only add to her empowering demeanor.


 570 832 3842  

************

Mini Icelandic Sheep Woman - Pinky - 6 x 6.5" - Mixed Fibers - $200

Victoria Marsh

I like to think of embroidery as means of drawing, but instead of traditional tools to make lines and marks on paper, I use fabric and thread. My works utilize the female nude, transformed -- women with animal heads. This is a form of anthropomorphism known as theriocephaly, and has been used throughout history to represent deities in various cultures. These figures aim to be subversive, yet quiet, and demand an intimate relationship when viewing (which could make the viewer uncomfortable by being so close). The bodies of these figures are soft, saggy, hairy and stretch marked, things every person has seen on their own body. 

Yet, unlike some of us, these figures own their new markings and wear them with pride. I use the themes of anthropomorphism, body positivity and humor to showcase the power and tenacious spirit of women, and treat these embroideries as my own little deities. Additionally, these pieces have bright thread drawn patterns on them to emulate tattoos. These patterns are inspired by traditional Icelandic/Scandinavian embroidery and knitwear designs and quilt patterns, and are used to add power to the figures.

************
All is Within Her - 18 x 24" - mixed media - NFS

Megan L. Williams

My goddess depiction was born out of the feeling that women embody so much, are given so much responsibility, yet are subject to the inequality of a patriarchal society. Figuratively, the female form represents Mother Earth. All the natural world is within and birthed from the goddess. Yet, despite being hailed as creators and the origin of being, the weight of a long history of the systemic silencing of women is born by all of us. The birds represent all the times women’s voices and thoughts have been silenced. They can no longer be contained - and as they burst forth ecstatically, there is a radiant release. All women are goddesses. We can no longer be ignored. We will no longer bear our burden of silence.

mw04841@gmail.com

************

Goddess - 9 x 5" - Casein on Wood - $200


Underwater - 14 x 11" - Pastel - $400

Norma Johnson

This Goddess revealed herself to me in driftwood I picked up on the Backshore of Peaks Island.  She speaks of the dense integrity and strength of nature. With her body, her arms, her head, she is a caryatid in miniature.  
Underwater - In mythology, mermaids seduced sailors and smashed ships.  Thus they incorporate love and rage, and share dual Goddess attributes of Venus and Kali. As my painting shows, mermaids live underwater, but they also have lungs and breathe air. Part animal, part human, both woman and fish, they suggest deep female connections with nature and fertility. 

************

Goddess Within - 30 x 30" - digital - $500
master print on canvas 1/25 (limited edition series of 25)



Goddess Posing as a Scientist and Mother - 24 x 24 - digital - $350
2/25 gallery wrap canvas (limited edition series of 25)

Ann Tracy 

Goddess Within - I was so lucky to have caught one of my favorite models, Rene, with some off time and we drove up to the Desert of Maine in Freeport. My camera ran out of juice and I didn't have a backup, so I pulled out my trusty iPod Touch to see what would happen with a double exposure.
Goddess Posing as a Scientist and Mother - Also features one of my favorite models - Meredith. This is from my Domestic Considerations series (https://fineartamerica.com/profiles/ann-tracy?tab=artworkgalleries&artworkgalleryid=819869)
This series of work deals with the double drama women have to deal with when they don't get enough help with the household duties from their spouses and children. When so many women had to drop out of the labor market to take care of house and children, I realized I had been prescient in a way.
anntracy51@gmail.com​     http://anntracy.blogspot.com/

 *****************************************************************

The Uneasy Goddess - 17 x 11 - Archival digital print - $200

Goddess of the Waterfront - 17 x 11 - Archival digital print - $250
 

JOANNE ARNOLD

An Uneasy Goddess - I met the woman in this image while on an assignment at The Salvation Army Senior Center in Portland, Maine. She embodies what I feel the Rage/Love Goddess might just be. Despite being dressed in her holiday best, she appears a bit dismayed and exhausted. Hers is a spirit well versed over time, over eons, through the ages, in pain and beauty. She stares soberly out of the frame, at our world... witnessing the atrocities small and large we humans perpetrate against one another. Dismayed. Exhausted. A disappointed mother knowing we could do better. Wanting us to do better. Dismayed. Exhausted.


Goddess of the Waterfront - She had been waiting so long for her ship to come in.  Her ship has finally come in and left and she turns away. Maybe she was expecting something different. Maybe she was looking for love and there was none. Something that was something trying to pass as love. Disguised as love. Her gloved hands bundles beauty within a framework of disappointment and rage.


www.joannearnold.com     207.232.2176

Instagram: #joannearnoldphotography     Facebook: @ Joanne Arnold

************

Invocation To Dance

Dave Wade

In attempting to picture things in a grander scale than normal, we often return to myth and archetype. Since antiquity, and before established religions, the Goddess has been worshipped as the personification and deification for that primitive/ primal force of cyclic change, inextricably identified with fertility and growth, of birth and rebirth, and Mother Nature herself.

She is the heartbeat of the Universe, Goddess of the 3 realms…the Heavens above, Queen of the Deep, and Mother Earth. She is Mistress of the myth of time immemorial, keeper of the ritual of eternal repetition recreated in dance… the circle coming back upon itself… the dance of the dance.

As Stravinsky imagined in Sacre de Printemps or the Rites of Spring, the dancer is performing a ritual, a celebration of the pagan cycle of the divine dance, a sacrifice to the god of Spring to bring forth fresh growth.

The dancer’s hands are outstretched in an invocation, a call to the heavens to bless and nourish... to the roots below and the tree above to grow and re-blossom. The Goddess’ dance is an invitation for the moon and the spirits of the deep, for the sea to return and the tides to rise, covering and erasing it all again in order for a new fresh cycle to begin.

Around and around. . . the Goddess performs her ceremonial dance in a circle round the sacred tree . . .another circumnavigation of cycles repeated endlessly in the ancient ritual of pre-history and futures past.


davewade1@gmail.com               davewadephoto.com


************


Threes_30_x22__Graphite_NFS

Rage_4_x9__Graphite_$3500


Melissa Kulig

A powerful Goddess lives in every woman...and she is pissed! What happens when a woman expresses rage? A rageful Goddess to me means not only power, but transformation and self-actualization. My drawings seek to confront the notion of a woman’s appropriate behavior in society, and how the boundaries have shifted since the 19th century. Victorian society preferred its women to be passive, soothing, and ready to keep domestic peace. If not, they may have been labeled hysterical, mad, or disturbed, with potentially dire consequences.
My distorted self-portraits in Victorian-era costume are drawn from a side of my emotional landscape that I have rarely let myself explore – an angry, contorted, and ugly place. Though drawn in the traditional medium of graphite on paper, they counter the ancient concept of portraiture as flattery and beautiful resemblances. My inner Goddess in this form is honored and respected.


Exploring feminine rage through line, mark, shadow, and form, I discover a certain beauty in the making, and deep emotional connection to the subject, where the mask of perceived acceptability is lifted, and a new, more authentic beauty, in expressions normally suppressed, is revealed. It is my hope that these portraits let me embrace, in a new light, this dark, angry Goddess in myself. 
cptnkulig@gmail.com


************

Exuberant Goddess_15x13_mixedmedia_nfs


Sun Moon Goddess_15x12_mixed media__nfs

Christine Sullivan

I celebrate the Goddess in all of us.  Dancing, singing, all the things we want to return in our post-pandemic lives, balanced by the reflective and divine. 

Original Collages NFS, Limited edition prints available. 

xtinejulia@gmail.com

************

SacredFlower#1_9.5x10_PaperCollage_$250



Sunrise_8.5x9.5_PaperCollage_$150

Chris Allen

The goddess in Sacred Flower can be seen as rebuilding the earth or taking it apart. The Goddess is using the pieces at her feet to rebuild a broken planet, a sacred flower. Perhaps the flower in the center is being disassembled, the pieces dropped at the Goddess’s feet. As she dances her form takes a circular shape, the shape of the flower / Earth, and also the shape of the pieces at her feet. She holds the pieces in her hands, assembling and disassembling.

The goddess in Sunrise regards the earth with love but she is holding it rather gingerly. She could easily toss it aside if it is not salvageable. The flowers covering the goddess represent the sun she uses to warm / burn the earth and are also proof that life flows from her. 

Chris Allen                               chrisallencollage@yahoo.com
207-212-4953                           Instagram @chrisallencollage

************


What We Can't Have_.14_x14__encaustic on metal, found objects_300.00



Willing to Testify_12_x36__encaustic,fabric_450.00

Anne Strout 

Willing to Testify is a piece inspired by the Me,Too movement, an international social movement against sexual abuse, harassment, and violence. Call it what it is. Speak up, stand up. The time has come to testify.

What We Can’t Have is an artwork inspired by love and punishment. Adam and Eve were happy in Paradise, according to Genesis, in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. BUT there was one rule they must abide by; Do not eat the forbidden fruit. Along came Satan in the form of a serpent. He convinced them to eat that fruit. Now Rage ensued. They were thrown out of Paradise as warned. And we have been dealing with Trouble ever since they wanted what they couldn’t have.

strout3@gmail.com - www.annetrout.com - 207-318-1830

************

Untitled_Wood, plastic and bottle_12x12, 26'' H_2019_$1000

Titi de Baccarat

If the black body is not human, its land and its divinity cannot belong to it. The Icon, the Goddess, Venus, whose real name is Sawtche, is a Khoisan woman enslaved and transported to Europe to exhibit her body at fairs and circuses. A tragic story that overwhelms us right down to our guts. Two centuries later, through an untitled sculpture, Titi de Baccarat pays homage to Sawtche, giving her clothes to cover her nudity and gold to celebrate her great line (Late Stone Age), as if to give her back her identity, her culture, her beliefs, her language and her land which had been taken from her through the wounds called colonialism, sexism and racism.

Titi de Baccarat is a multi-faceted artist: painter, sculptor, jeweler, clothing designer, writer, photographer, actor... Dedicated to justice in a hostile political context, he was forced to flee his country, Gabon, with only the wealth of his artistic ability. He works, through his African identity and artistic expertise, to contribute to the cultures of Portland and of Maine. He believes that art rehabilitates love, bringing together people of all countries, of all backgrounds, of all cultures, and of all ethnicities.

krystaldebac@gmail.com

************


Breastplate_18_ x20__oil on panel_$995


Summer_24_x24__oil on panel_$1,200


Diane Dahlke

BreastplateRoxanne is a china doll who came down to me through a friend of my mother’s.  The little girl who braided her hair grew old and is now long dead.  However, like any good goddess, Roxanne preservers.  She wears the crab as a piece of armor.  It’s a breastplate to protect her through her journey through time.  I’d like to think that they give strength to each other.
Summer - The statue in this painting is a goddess disguised as an ordinary young woman.  Though made of stone, her face and features are soft, rounded, and a little plump.  She stares out at us with confidence, Merging, appearing, disappearing among the grapes, she blesses us with the joys and wonders of summer.

dianddahlke.com                     dhdahlke@maine.rr.com

************

wonderwoman#2_36x36x66__aluminum wire, stone_2500.00

C Jean Noon

Being a sculptor/painter/photographer and a farmer establishes a deep connection for me between my labor, nature, and the continuum of positive human energy experienced by process and communicated through art.   As a sheep farmer I have a life-long practice and a particular opportunity for careful observation.   As a sculptor, I build structures to contain and communicate ideas, responses, and emotions. I find the slow quiet process of building a work is soothing and affirming.  Deeply interested in traditional basket-making, my structures are often vessels with interior elements.  Working with wire connects my sculpture to the fencing across my farm. 

Wonder Woman 2 is actually my second sculpture of this theme.  The first was titled Wonder Woman Magic Carpet Rider.  It sold in 2020 and was approximately the same size.  I had built it while caring for my husband as he underwent treatment for Lymphoma in 2015.  It expressed the Goddess I wished to be and how ungrounded I felt.  A patron who saw the piece at June LaCombe’s Hawk Ridge Farm called after the show asking to purchase it, and upon learning it had been sold asked if I could make another.  I agreed but pointed out that another one would never come out the same… and it didn’t.  Instead, I was surprised by the Covid 19 angst it seems to contain.

"He is the true artist whose life is his material."   Henry David Thoreau

************

Winter's Greens 1_18x24_oil on canvas_$1050

Leslie Anderson

My initial reaction to the pandemic was rage: at my canceled trip to Spain; at the administration's inept handling of the crisis; at the politicization of common-sense health measures; at my husband's need to flee Portland for our summer farm in Sedgwick on the Blue Hill Peninsula. For us, it was the right decision. Infections rates were, for a time, lower, the grocery store didn't feel so much like the DMZ, chopping wood became a meditation. My rage didn't exactly subside, but being out in the natural world helped damp it down. After a summer of painting small watercolors (I felt too overwhelmed to haul my plein-air oil-painting rig around) I didn’t know what I was going to do once cold weather forced me to confront the studio. And then in early December I met the goddesses, a giant ledge of ancient boulders festooned in greens of every shade, draped in mosses, lichens, ferns, and tree roots. Smack in the center of downtown Blue Hill, they were an unexpected oasis in the midst of a very dark winter. I instantly knew I wanted to paint them, and so began the journey out of the darkness.

8 Flower Farm Lane Sedgwick ME 04676 through October 15 21 Chestnut St Unit 401 Portland ME 04101 October 15-May 15 2022 207.615.8915 www.leslieanderson.com leslie@leslieanderson.com

************

Goddess_16x20_inkjet print_$300


Savage Beauty_  50x38_mixed media_$1000

Jim Kelly

My two images originate as photographs of street art. Both involve the female image that has been attached to public walls. The vertical image entitled Savage Beauty is a peeling poster of a female in a compromising and sexually degrading position. The poster has been tagged with red spray paint, worn its way through sections of its backing and a MOMA access pass to a Savage Beauty exhibition has been posted on it. I added the duct tape, the blue paint and wrote the phrases “I’m Here” responding to the “Nobody Was Here” portion of the poster. The Guggenheim Museum provides the background and the female figure stands as an abused and tortured contemporary caryatid. This image embodies the “Rage” dimension of the show’s title where the female form is both exploited and abused.

Ironically, at the other end of the emotional spectrum my second image celebrates the female figure as inspirational and worthy of adoration. The taped photograph is at the very center of a large mural depicting an Indian goddess. Here the tone and execution honors the sanctity and beauty of the eternal feminine mystique. Serenity and wisdom pervade the image. The eyes embody insight and express purity. The Goddess image reflects the “Love” aspect of the show’s title and is a startling counterpoint to “Savage Beauty”.

Jimkelly3924@gmail.com      Jimkellyart.com      IG: @jimkellyart

************

The Goddess Cries 7_36x12x13_MixedMedia SculptureBust_$4000

Gina Luna Josephs

The Goddess is pregnant with the planet Earth and yet she is brokenhearted. She holds her heart in her hands for all to see; the heart just torn away in this moment of agony. Her pleas are for peace but instead she shows us that she is left with an empty black catacomb in her chest and a heart that bleeds bright red droplets. Her anger has turned into grief for the planet and for the animals that human beings destroy incessantly, not realizing that this kamikaze behavior is the path towards certain doom in a future not far away.

Original and truly one of a kind! Hand sculpted in professional stone clay, hand painted with gesso and pastel, embellished with vintage jewels and fabric, rubber snake, vintage decoupage butterflies, vintage flowers, acrylic wigs, driftwood from Maine.
Gina Luna Josephs is a self-taught Italian/Brazilian artist and mystic living in Maine with her beloved husband and adored cats. Her work has been published multiple times in fine art magazines. Gina Luna began sculpting professionally in 1999. She is passionate about creating original art inspired by all that is beautiful and magical in the natural and spiritual worlds.
www.ginaluna.net

************

Sharing of Sustenance_30x10x10_wood_$7900

Check out the making of  Sharing of Sustenance by clicking HERE


Arms Around It_30.5x33.5x8.75_wood_$10,900

Clara Cohan

Goddess represents birthing/creation energy, nurturing, supportive of all life…not just human life, but ALL life reaching far into the Infinite Cosmos. This is Love. When we do not act in accordance with the respect She deserves, She will Rage.

Arms Around It encourages us to open our arms wide and expand our minds into the vastness of the infinite Cosmos. Once we can do that, then maybe we will be able to understand how sacred this tiny speck of planet is…and begin to act with deep respect to it and all life.

Sharing of Sustenance, whether it be food, water, medicine, knowledge, technology...is an important human action. This is not about letting others become dependent on the help offered, but rather to be empowered to prosper on their own. The symbolic interpretation of the carved images on the 'body' of the sculpture, which is designed to be turned, like a Prayer Wheel, reveals the Mother Figure handing nourishment to the Children, teaching them how to grow the food, and they in turn, passing the knowledge along to the next generation.
Harbor Square Gallery     www.HarborSquareGallery.com

************
Mannequins

Alice Wilkinson

These two mannequins in a fancy mall are the plastic idea of perfection.  They are definitely non-human, but are presented as an ideal, something to work toward, if plasticizing oneself can be considered work.  As shown by these two, the artificial often overcomes the real in our minds.  They are certainly not goddesses, but who or what is? 

************

The Goddess Arises
Norajean Ferris

I created The Goddess Arises with the intent of  asking audiences an age-old question: Do we forgive and accept the wrongs of others, does this act lead the world on a path of  healing, or will it only prolong the pain of human suffering? In all honesty, I have yet to come up with a righteous and concrete answer, however I continue to create work such as this, to make sense of the brokenness of human existence, and to make sure that my viewers will spread this message throughout their communities and the world at large.      

I was born in Portland and raised in Cumberland Maine. I studied at Green Mountain College in Poultney Vermont, and graduated in 2015 with a BFA in Fine Art. There, I met students from all over the world, and I learned of the controversial and grave issues which permeate global societies. Upon graduating, I settled in Portland Maine, due to its rich artistic background. In the past few years the population of Portland has changed, with an influx of immigrants settling in the city. While the arrival of these new citizens have brought multiculturalism to Portland, issues of discrimination and bigotry have grown across the American nation. In this ever increasing turmoil, I have begun to make art that speaks for societal change, as a way of eliminating forms of exclusion, bringing to light the importance of harmony and peace for all humanity.

 (207) 400-2691
     www.norajeanferris.com
      nj@norajeanferris.com

************

Goddess Calendar

Andrew Chulyk

This series began in March of 2020. My aim was to create, as minimally as possible figurative forms using only space, two lines and color. After creating the third or fourth figure the goddesses started appearing, illusive in nature, a force without identity, not seen but felt. Twelve became the goal. It was not my original intent to create a calendar, but I came to realize that they reflected the ever-changing moods of the planet. I chose, rather than naming them, to assign a month to each. Their images invoke the spirit of change, not just for the seasons, but for the millennia. Endless, ever evolving as are we and the planet. Is it anger, rage or love that is the driving force or is it only the Goddess nature that prevails and leads us onward.
 
andrewchulyk@gmail.com                 207-462-3968
 
************
Sleight of Hand_36x36_mixedmedia_$2000

Sally Stanton

I don’t think of “goddess” in a capital G way, but as the perfect woman--without flaws, outside or in. A woman who has it all and doesn’t sweat. We constantly battle with and against the appearance-based criteria of what women must be from birth and throughout the entirety of our lives. I hope this expectation is changing.

My figurative paintings embrace flaws—the antithesis of what I’ve always thought of as goddess. Though this painting depicts figures that nod to classic Greek imagery of goddess, I don’t seek to idealize the human form. The goddesses I excavate out of an intuitive process of push me- pull you mark-making, are women with babies, pregnant women, angry women, old women, nurses, swimmers, dancers, readers, protectors. Their expressions reveal skepticism, boredom, anger, and mistrust; and they’re often hands-on-hips empowered.
These visual narratives come from memories, dreams, and the human stories that filter through from the unquiet world, straddling the line between cartoon and nightmare, ugliness and beauty.

salstanton.wixsite.com/home                          instagram.com/sal.stanton

************

5 Masai Women from Kajiado Standing in the Sun  9" x 12" Oil on canvas, 2021

Janice L. Moore

I was able to meet these particular women and spend time with them where they live. It is a celebratory painting paying homage to them and our brief shared experience.

************


Terpsichore_9” x 13“_Woodcut on Paper_$50

Thor Smith

I want to create an image that captures how music and dance brings joy to the soul.  I want the viewer to feel that bliss as the dancer leaps through the layers of cool colors and mixing-up the musical notes.  For a brief moment forget the past unprecedented year with quarantines, lockdowns, masks, isolation, politics and social issues that slowly grinds our tender spirit to a bloody pulp.  Who better than Terpsischore, the Greek muse of dance and music and maybe a little help from Dionysus.

Born and raised in historic Saratoga, New York, Thor studied art in Indiana, worked as a commercial photographer in Chicago and Dallas before settling down on the banks of the Androscoggin River in Lewiston.  Thor’s time as a commercial photographer and experience as a painter influences his unique style of woodcut prints. He draws inspiration from pop culture, music and Soviet era propaganda posters.

ntx575studios@gmail.com 

https://ntx575studios.wixsite.com/website     Etsy.com/shop/ntx575     instagram.com/ntx575

************



Persephone Returns from the Underworld


My Goddess is rooted in the Earth

Jackie Hawkins
Their myth personifies release and renewal through Persephone’s ability to grow beyond her own relationship to her mother and develop compassion and deep understanding of other souls. Also, Demeter shows an ability to move beyond the grief of separation from her daughter and to recognize and respond to universal need. The renewal of life and the myth of Demeter and Persephone are based upon the release of old attachments. Their story is the longest practiced of all Greek rituals, promising hope and joy in the renewal of life after death. Still today, the need to bond with the “Mother Earth” brings fulfillment, regeneration, and bounty to our lives and work.

Persephone was the beautiful and beloved maiden daughter of Demeter, the Grain Mother and source of earthly abundance and well-being. In Greek mythology, when Hades raped and abducted Persephone into his dark realm of the underworld, Demeter was devastated and chose to withdraw her gift of life to the earth. In Demeter’s grief and anger, the earth’s crops withered and died and all life became threatened. Persephone triumphed and for 6 months she spent receiving and initiating the deceased into their underground realm. During the 6 months she spent on earth, spring and summer, Persephone and Demeter celebrated their reunion and life and vegetation were renewed. The myth represented the rise of patriarchy and loss of choice for women. In pre-Greek myth, Persephone chose to enter the underworld to initiate the dead.

 jhawkins@meca.edu

************

 
Awakening

Diane Hudson

When Covid robbed me of my senses of taste and smell in July 2020, I left Maine, taking refuge in the mountains, rocks, desert and natural habitat of the great Southwest. Here I discovered a vast beauty while experiencing my aloneness increasingly connecting with the oneness of the world. Delving deeper into the other senses, I extricated myself from sorrow, loss, and yes, rage... finding another dimension of self to embrace and extol. The mountain bluebird kept crossing my path, flashing its surreal “blueness” in streaks that were forever impossible to “capture.” Then one day, one of these lovelies landed right at my feet. I literally heard this tiny creature saying: “This is good. You have found something else to do other than bemoaning your loss of senses (taste and smell) that you so thoroughly enjoyed. I am glad you enjoy my color, my being.” And that bird, like any good goddess, stirred in me a new appreciation of living. Here she is flying right at me, saying “YES, wake up and enjoy what you can, while you can. It all goes by pretty darn fast.”
 
ionesco777@icloud.com      dhudson777@aol.com      Dhudson777 Instagram      

************

Flow Portrait No. 9_9x12_acryliconpaper_$120

Becky Chase

My piece is a portrait of an ageless woman overcoming silence. Her throat, the source of goddess vitality, bursts fire engine red amongst a backdrop of mature neutrals and delicate pastels. Fire melts away the shackles of feminine restraint; she vocally razes to a status of distinction, so to speak. Her facial features are purposefully ambiguous and distorted; the viewer is challenged to imagine the shape of her mouth and the limitless impact of her voice.

Becky Chase is a Maine-based painter and illustrator who began her artistic practice as a serious endeavor in 2011. Becky’s painterly works are mainly in acrylics, often exploring color interruptions between bubblegum pastel and dour neutrals, using fluid shape and defined, repetitive line work. Her watercolor landscapes additionally take on a minimalist style while emphasizing the availability of negative space. She has displayed her art all over Maine in recent years, including at New Fruit’s Moon Show and Float Harder. In 2015, Becky also published the popular adult coloring book Downeast Daydream: A Maine Coloring Vacation, which was featured in Maine Today and Downeast Magazine. Some of her work is inspired by spending summers on an island in Maine and her roots as a ninth-generation Mainer, with her sixth great-grandfather Ezekiel Bradford settling in Turner in 1782.

chase.rebecca@gmail.com    www.twinfawnmedia.com 

************

Eye of Ra

Amy Bellezza


The Cat Goddess Bast, the daughter of Ra, was the original Eye of Ra, a fierce protector who almost destroyed mankind but was tricked with blood-colored beer which put her to sleep, stopping the carnage.  She represented playfulness, grace, affection, cunning and sexuality, with the heart of a predator. 

 

In Ancient Egypt, to harm a cat was a crime.  Cats, upon their natural death, were mummified and offered at Bast’s temple.  Cats protected crops by killing the vermin that ate away at the grains.  Egyptians would hunt with them and keep them as pets.

 

 My Cat-Goddess, Winchester Franc Eloise “Winnie”, is a Savannah breed and descended from an African Serval.  The Serval was poached in Ancient Egypt and kept as an exotic pet.  She is defiant, fiercely independent and rebellious but also very active and playful.  I have had to take things off the walls because she leaps up, and pulls them down. 

 

To me, Winnie represents female power.  She answers to no one but at the same time, she is such a joy to own (or does she own me?)  Along with cats, I link all women with Bast and the true feminine power.


amybellezza@gmail.com                            amybellezza.com

************



Arising _ 14.5 x 18.5" _ MixedMedia Monotype _ $200




Nike_Encaustic Monotype _ NFS



Kristin Onuf

“Arising” is a unique print depicting a possibly divine figure in the midst of a turbulent maelstrom of color, form and mark, evoking the anger that now engulfs our political and social culture. Can we identify?  Can we temper the raging storm, emerging as “Nike” with an expansive, triumphant love? Can we begin to celebrate our shared humanity?

kkonuf@hotmail.com

************

Most of the work in this show is for sale, please either contact the individual artist or email umvaportland@gmail.com for contact information.

 






Comments

Popular posts from this blog

In Balance/Imbalance

  “In Balance/Imbalance” July 3rd to July 29th Reception Friday July 7th 4-8 ‘In Balance/Imbalance at the UMVA Portland Gallery inside the Portland Media Center at 516 Congress Street is a collaboration between the Maine Arts Journal and the Union of Maine Visual Artists Portland Gallery.  Over thirty UMVA artists works will be displayed. The artists have interpreted the theme in multiple mediums. All the works are accompanied by text explaining their interpretation. All of the works displayed will be in the Summer edition of the Maine Arts Journal where the concept of how we see our world as “In Balance and “Imbalanced” is furthered explored. Hours The Portland Media Center 10-5 Monday-Thursday Gallery hours with artist docents are scheduled: Friday 4-8 Saturday 1-4 Sunday 2-5* these hours are by chance due to PMC filming schedule

Sheltered in Place - a Pandemic Art Show

The Covid pandemic reshapes our lives. It continues to strip down our existence, separating us from loved ones and exposing weaknesses in our system of governance and our political leadership. It demonstrates the devastating impact of the nation's grave social injustices. Systemic racism and socioeconomic disparity put oppressed peoples at greater risk for Covid-19. Then, on May 25, as many of us bunkered inside our homes, we witnessed the cold-blooded murder of George Floyd. This videotaped tragedy and the eruption of Black Lives Matter protests across the nation revealed the depth and breadth of racism in America. It is a contagion every bit as present and virulent as the coronavirus. In the face of both existential challenges – pandemic and racism – we can only recover through radical social change. The images and words of UMVA artists in this online exhibition surface from the isolation and compression of life in the pandemic. The works express personal and universa