Dreams, visions, myths and other archetypical images inform my writing and art. I am moved to find the fish with the largest eyes and who live in the deepest waters. Often these images come from my dreams, but as often come from life experiences that I integrate into my writing and art.
An image from a friend’s dream triggered my current quest. In her dream, she goes into the basement, looking for a cookbook for her mother. As she is searching for the book, there is a knock at the door; she opens it, and, standing before her, is a group of women with white faces. Immediately I knew, as she related her dream, the image was one of African ancestors. The images of the Ancestors in my friend’s dream in 2009 still haunts and hunts me. These images of the ancestors are woven throughout my writing and art, reflected in my writing and three-dimensional work incorporating images of eggs, seeds, bones, and other organic objects.
These images appeared in my art in 2009 which was also the beginning of my mother’s illness. I spent this year writing about my ancestors and about my childhood. During this time, I also created leather eggs: pieces of leather stitched together over an egg form, which made it appear repaired, whole but not perfect. As I explored this image, I realized that the egg (and the seed) is an alchemical container often found mythology worldwide.
In February 2013, the end of my mother’s life journey, I started expressing her journey in my writing and artist book(s). Using the framework of ancient myths, such as the Sumerian myth Inanna and Ereshigal, I expressed my experience of loss. Through this I experience the healing power of art.
In March 2015, another twist appeared. While doing a timed writing, Esperanza, a half-African and half-Spanish little girl living in northern New Mexico sprang into being. She had been waiting all her life for this moment, just as I had been preparing myself all my life to write her story. We have travelled the winding road of memories over centuries to reach each other. She combines the bloodlines of Sephardic Jews escaping the Spanish Inquisition and Ugandans sold into Spanish slavery then brought to the New World. Her people were farmers who sowed their dreams, histories, and memories into the rich soil of northern New Mexico. Her story lay buried like a dormant seed and is now being written.
With both my art and writing, I am fascinated with images infrequently seen or appreciated in mainstream culture. Through living with these images, I hope to reclaim a place for both—the feminine and the other. Now, my artist and writer friends, see my art as narrative and my writing as painterly, signaling that the visual and the written have joined hands in a sacred marriage.