Icons

Presented at the Wilson Scott Galleries
November 2004

The Icon Series is a major rearrangement of the artists skills and a more precise direction in assigning new voices to old symbols.

When we break open the world of Icons we see the elements, a series of symbols depicting a spiritual idea, prepared to be the object of reverence for this or that aspect of one's spirit.

These pieces are carved gesso layers applied to panels. This is the same as traditional methods of creating a true Icon. The carving is deeper, a low relief, which is more than the Icons of old would have done. They are painted in a water color technique using temperas made by the artist. Some of the icons in this series are then gilded using different types of precious metal leaf depending on the poetry of the moment. They are then finished with a clear, conservatorial wax. The frames are hand made by the artist's husband. They are stocky to accommodate the weighty presense of the art work.

	"Birthing Spirit" is meant to be a statement of the female spirit emerging from the symbolism of the male gender. Free of any male gender symbols and yet solidity and piercing aspects are present. More simply, the spirit breaking into a new territory. The background is gilded in 24 karat gold to maintain a state of pureness as traditional Icons would.
The cracking and other signs of age are intentional. These works are to look as if they have been cherished for a long, long time. Icons have a great history of traveling, living roughly and surviving. The basic motif for this design is, like most of the artist's works, a single, continuous line. This piece was geometrically formed to fit the conceptual idea of a spirit emerging.
	"Brave Heart" is free of all cultural and gender identification and still retains the form of a person and the beating of a human heart. This piece is rather richly carved with sharp edges around the inner forms of the head, arms and legs painted like wispy clouds in a clear blue sky offering an image worth being brave for. The firey inner knot as a shield and of course, the burnished red heart.
Gilded in 23 ¾ red gold with wild overlaps and worn through adding to the look of age. The difference between the smoothness of the carving and the pebbly background offer a rich textural contrast.
	"Nurturer" is made from a single continuous line defining a form. The essence of flower because it generates seeds with the added warmth and animation of human caring. This form holds spheres. The juggler comes to mind when this image is translated through the female gender and touching when translated through the male gender. It is the male penguin that nurtures the young on it's feet.
Off spring, nature, ideas, there are so many ways in which nurturing is to be revered. The background is a warm golden orange tempera that shows off the paints unique flow capacity and ability to richly distribute color. Something stronger than gold was needed to stand up to the lime and hot pink of the composition.
	"Interactive Trinity" looks like an old, worn fresco due to the way the tempera is absorbed by the carved layers of gesso. There are three triangular shapes interacting. In Christian symbolism this could be the blue Heavenly Father, the green Son born on Earth and the often over looked yellow for the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is of dubious gender and suspect of being actually female.
Either way the spirit gains some equality of force in this composition and we get to stay gender neutral. The blue and green angles interact very little and it is the spirit that pierces every plane. The background is burnished and matte 23 ¾ karat red gold with the aged appearance needed for an air of some time long, long ago.
"Courageous Journey" is the classic question, "Where did we come from and where are we going?" The spiral is a strong infinity symbol and the triangle, depending on it's position, female. Women are just coming to awareness of their history in the ordered flower garden with moon lite nights.
We face an infinitely long future with no immediate road map. The bird flies shrieking from the order of the blue sky, green field, flowered and moon lit garden to the blazing spiral of the future, in which is imbedded a triangular female identity symbol. The background is Palladium Leaf which, like gold, is a noble metal in that it will never tarnish. It is silver in appearance and has a unique violet hue. It is placed on a purple ground to stregthen the effect. The over all effect is that it looks like and icon from the future.
Nov 2004 The End