Blue Beard

The story of Blue Beard, that Clarissa Pinkola Estes tells in her book, Women The Run With The Wolves, is for me one of the most ominous, and warns of destructive, unhealthy relationships, and entering the forbidden rooms of our psyche. It is a powerful story of warning and trusting our intuition.

I am reminded of the many John Bradshaw books I read many years ago, when I was at the beginnings of my own self-discovery. These books discuss impaired family relationships and how they affect us. It's as if there existed a dysfunctional relationship antenna, where with  closed eyes, walking into a room of two hundred people, finds the most dysfunctional person, to have a relationship ship with, among the group.  It also makes me think of the book, Women Who Love Too Much, and all the other written material surrounding this topic.

There is much more I could say about this relating to my own experience without getting into psychobabble however I'd rather just post my new painting, entitled, Blue Beard.  That said, I will add, thank goodness for 12 Step Recovery. 

This fifth painting in my series, I feel is quite successful for me. I consciously worked at my coloured ink under painting, more so than the previous pieces. My layered application of the egg tempera was a concerted effort to involve myself with the painting process. I think this is a rather vague attempt to describe my process this time but what I am trying to say is I am learning more as I go. 

How To Talk to a Wolf Woman About Your Best Piece of Art Work

Art Seminar is a most interesting class, I must say. Our Professor Jerry Ropson has a vivid imagination and greatly encourages his students to use their own imagination in a creative and unlimited way. One such example of this is the written journal assignment he gave last class. We are to write an approximately 500 word description of what we would tell an alien, wolf man or some one else about a work of art we'd created that we consider to be one of our best expressions, why we liked it and how we made it. This was to be told to this being who knew absolutely nothing about art and had never actually seen art before.


Presently I am very involved in reading Women That Run With The Wolves, by Clarissa Pinkola Estes and the myth of the Wolf Woman figures predominately in this book. So I thought it would be appropriate for me to attempt to describe my work to the Wolf Woman. I may very well be simply talking to myself, and I am uncertain as to how I will to go about this exercise, regardless here is my attempt.


I have to take into careful consideration that I am trying to communicate with a Wolf Woman.
I would have to make her feel both welcome and comfortable and immediately offer my couch to lay upon and something good for her to eat, perhaps some old leftovers that resembled a science project or several disgusting items like mice, moles, voles, and vermin that I would have prepared a head of time.

Wolf Woman is very intelligent but not the same as human intelligence. She has a inner sight that is other worldly and one that I am not completely able to understand or perceive yet, and so all I can do is attempt to explain my art to her in mostly a visual and non verbal manner, with a few verbal sounds as she does not speak with words.


Firstly I would show her my egg tempera painting. It is a portrait, one that is my interpretation of what I think she might look like. I have depicted her standing outside of her cave where she dwells, which will look familiar to her I hope. I could provide a mirror for her to see her own image  however I suspect this would  frighten and alarm her. I am not certain she will recognize the portrait I have painted of her.


Then I would show her an egg, which I would have to keep in my hands in case she decided to eat it. Next I would show her a blank piece of wood, much like the piece of wood,  the completed painting had been produced on, followed by brushes, powdered pigment, water and vinegar in small containers to mix the paint in. I would then proceed to crack open the egg discarding the white and keeping the yolk, placing the yolk on a paper towel, rolling it around some, getting rid of all the little egg white blobs left on the yolk. The sack of the yolk I then remove, placing it in a small glass container to be mixed with powdered  pigment, droplets of water and a few drops of vinegar for preservation. An equal amount of egg yolk is mixed with powered pigment. Egg tempera is rather like drawing with paint with much mark making. 

I then would begin to paint another portrait of  Wolf Woman.
After the painting is completed, I would make a pot of tea and offer Wolf Woman a bowl of milk, with honey,and also offer her the painting.

Wolf Woman

I had a brain fart a minute ago and realized I deleted this post mistakenly, and so I am re-posting it again!

I have been re-reading a book by Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Ph. D. Women That Run With The Wolves. She is a cantadora which means she is "keeper of the old stories". Stories are medicine she says and I believe this to be so. It is a book of women's stories, about the wild self, tellings about the ways of the wild woman, that many woman have forgotten.
This book has been and is continuing to become a very vital and significant influence on my creative life.

"All these stories present the knife of insight, the flame of the passionate life, the breath to speak what one knows, the courage to stand what one sees without looking away, the fragrance of the wild woman." - Clarissa Pinkola Estes

I am beginning to paint the powerful imagery of this book. These egg tempera paintings I am working on are small studies of my imagination. I have posted the first one I completed.

Bluebeard

I completed my fourth egg tempera painting today and this story of Bluebeard is a powerful one and scary too, but only if you let it scare you. I've known a a number of Bluebeards but thank goodness I know to run the other way now!

The Natural Predator of the Psyche

"Developing a relationship with the wildish nature is an essential part of women's individuation. In order to accomplish this, a woman must go into the dark, but at the same time she must not be irreparably trapped, captured, or killed on her way there or back.

The Bluebeard story is about that captor, the dark man who inhabits all women's psyches, the innate predator. He is a specific and inconvertible force which must be memorized and restrained. To restrain the natural predator of the psyche it is necessary for women to remain in possession of all their instinctual powers. Some of these are insight, intuition, endurance, tenacious loving, keen sensing, far vision, acute hearing, singing over the dead, intuitive healing, and tending to their own creative fires." - Clarissa Pinkola Estes

The Handless Maiden

I finished this third egg tempera of my painting series late last night.

"The" Handless Maiden" is about women's initiation into the underground forest through the rite of endurance. The word endurance sounds as though it is means " to continue without cessation", and while this is an occasional part of the tasks underlying the tale, the word endurance also means " to harden, to make sturdy, to make robust, to strengthen, and this is the principal thrust of the tale, and the generative feature of the woman's long psychic life. We do not just go on to go on. Endurance means we make something substantial.

" The Handless Maiden " story is called, in different parts of the world, "Silver Hands," "The "Handless Bride", and " The Orchard." Folklorists number more than a hundred versions of the tale. Other variations are found throughout Eastern and Middle Europe. But the truth be told, the deep womanly experience underlying the tale is found anywhere there is yearning for the Wild Mother." - Woman That Run With The Wolves, Clarissa Pinkola Estes

Groovy Life Changing Books I Have Read!

Don't ya just love that word groovy! Ok...no? I'm stuck in a time warp...

Here's a list of some of the books that changed my life, I thought I'd share with you. Maybe you've read a few yourself and could share them with me?


1. Father's Daughters by Maureen Murdock, she is a Jungian writer.

2. She Flys Without Wings, by Mary Midkiff; a book about women and the connections they have with horses.

3. The Artist's Way, by Julie Cameron. A fantastic and empowering book for anyone wanting to learn more about reclaiming your own creativity and how to follow the creative path. This book truly changed my life.

4. The Hierarchy Of Needs, by Abraham Maslow, is a book I read the first years of Art College, and it helped me to understand the human condition and develop my own personal philosophy.

5. The Opposite Of Everything Is True, by William H. Crisman. This is a book about denial and living with alcoholism. A very powerful book.

6. The Spirituality Of Imperfection. A very significant book to me and the Author, William Kurntz, was the only person non-alcoholic, allowed access to the AA Archives. It is about the power and importance of story telling in helping us find our way. The stories are from a wide range of story tellers.

7. Traveling Mercies, Some Thoughts On Faith by Anne Lamott; she is a unique, wonderfully humourous writer, the book is real laugh out loud read.

8. Bird By Bird, is also by Anne Lamott and is all about the writing process. It is very enlightening and full of practical help and suggestions for those who write.

9. Writing Down The Bones, by Natalie Goldberg. A book about writing and being an Artist. A fabulous book.

10. Becoming A Writer by Dorthea Brande. This book was written first in 1934, in 1961 and in 1981. It is as relevant now to anyone who writes, as it was in the past.

11. Women That Run With The Wolves, by Clarissa Pinkola Estes, another Jungian...love those Jungians! She is a what is called a Cantedora which means" Keeper Of The Old Tales" and writes all about Fairytales/Fables/ Women's Spirituality. Am amazing book.

12. Zen & The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance, by Robert Pursig. This book examines Classical and Romantic thought. This was a required reading the first year of my first painting class, with a wonderful instructor Dana Loomis. He was a student of William De Kooning. I consider myself very fortunate to have had him as a teacher and mentor. This book framed my whole experience in Art school and as an artist.

13. The Path To Love by Deepak Chopra. A very spiritually empowering book.