This last year much of my artwork has been about the sadness of the Earth Goddess at a time when the Earth and her riches have been plundered, abused and endangered by humankind. The first of these pieces was ‘The Goddess Weeps’ which I made in response to the fires and destruction in the Amazon Rainforest. It portrays the emotional response to the loss of life at this sad time by the sacred feminine energy.
I twinned this piece with ‘In God we Trust’ which is a harder-hitting message about commercialism, greed and the patriarchy. The God of nature is left to burn for the sake of the dollar. The piece questions ‘Trust’ and ‘God’ – is the dollar the new God? These are sad pieces and a reflection of distressing times.
I then began working with the energy of the Goddess Demeter, who in mythology is the Mother Goddess who grieves the loss of her daughter Persephone. With this work, I was exploring the grief felt by mothers, daughters, sisters and the loss of the female bond. The story of Demeter and Persephone is one of the rare myths that explores the relationship between women and celebrates that relationship. In the myth, Persephone is separated from her mother, stolen into the underworld by the God Hades. But Persephone is clever and manages to negotiate her way back to Demeter to spend six months with her each summer. It is the story of winter and summer. In my artwork ‘Grief’, I wanted to capture the sense of loss, and also the beauty of the autumn season. I feel there is a hint of potential regeneration in this work too – maybe hinting at the hope of a better life?
With the birth of the New Year, I began working with the Goddess Melissa, the Goddess of the Bees. Another environmental issue, as there has been a great concern for the bees (her children) who were endangered creatures. There was a real threat to their species and, because we are all linked, a threat to humankind. I believe this awareness has helped us (humanity) remember that all of life is precious and that we are all dependent on each other. I attempted to capture some of this using beeswax and paint on wood, a reference with my materials to bees, trees and nature.
More recently with COVID 19 and our country in lockdown, many people are finding comfort in nature. Yesterday I read an article by Lucy Jones in the Guardian online entitled ‘Noticing nature is the greatest gift you can get from lockdown’. In the article, Lucy reports that people have recently had more time to notice the changing seasons, to explore their local parks, streets and woodlands. My friends and family have told me how they are noticing birdsong, flowers and nature more, particularly the way that nature has flourished with less traffic and pollution.
It seems true to me that we have all been forced to slow down and many of us have been reflecting on our lifestyles and embracing a simpler way of life. I believe this will be a bumper year for birds and bees and I imagine the Earth Goddess and the Bee Goddess will be delighted!
Perhaps it is time for me to move away from these sad Goddess images. I feel that it’s time to move my focus away from how she has suffered in the past and start creating more optimistic images of the Goddess and nature. I like the idea of symbolising her as a phoenix rising from the ashes? I have started to feel inspired to create a new piece of art with a happier Goddess. Perhaps I will pursue this idea during the summer? Whatever you’re doing I wish you all a very happy summer!
Follow this link to read the article by Lucy Jones – https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/may/16/nature-lockdown-summer-holidays
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