My Creative Epiphany in Paris -Part 2

We rejoin Rose in the Park in Les Lilas, outside of Paris having her Creative Epiphany.  It was amazing,  the thoughts filling my head were expanding in these bigger and bigger circles.  First I couldn't believe this could come to me here.

Before I had left San Francisco, I had been going to Grace Cathedral after work and going to the Labyrinth in the Cathedral to walk it as a meditative, contemplative ritual.  I felt as I had this epiphany that the figure needed to be placed in a Labyrinth to create a meditation for people to learn.  By utilizing ritual I am creating a journey that will put us in touch with the spiritual and mystical part of ourselves which is timeless.

For the stage of INITATION in the heroes' journey I was going to create an installation.  So that when experienced by the individual that person becomes a pilgrim as he or she is performing this ritual.  This ritual is not tied to any organized religion.  It is spiritually motivated to help us become aware of the spiritual dimensions of our lives and our own gifts and potentialities.  Helping us to  connect with our souls and the mystery of existance.

American Indian Labyrinth Pictograph

I knew what I would call this piece, La Luz de Vida, the Light of Life.  This is an androgynous figure as the soul has no gender.  The figure will stand in the middle of a Labyrinth.  The individual will be given a light stick.  When the pilgrim reaches the figure having walked the Labyrinth: they will then light the light stick and return from the center of the Labyrinth.  They have thus become the Pilgrim with the stick alight.

This winding path leading to the center serves as a mirror to reflect the movement of Spirit in our lives.  It awakens us to the rhythm that  unites us to ourselves and the light within.

This ritual meets the longing for a change of heart and challenges us to refine the way we live together: it also provides energy, vision and courage for the world for the 21st century.

  

Creative Epiphany in Paris, Part 2

My Creative Epiphany in Paris

La Luz de Vida - Light of Life
Steel sculpture by Rose Rosendo

I was invited to Paris by a dear friend to help he and his partner paint his house. The house was located in the neighborhood of the second to the last metro stop outside of the metropolitan area of downtown Paris, in a suburb called Romainville, in the Les Lilas area of Paris. The previous winter they had been out of town and France had had the worst winter in over a 100 years. The pipes had frozen and burst and the whole basement and bottom floor of the house had a foot of water. By the time they had come back from their trip the water damage had extended even to the plaster falling off the walls.

So Jerry (my friend ) called me and said how would I like to spend a month in Paris and help them paint the house. Well I was blown away and of course said yes.

Every morning I would take a walk for about an hour through the neighborhood and to the park and on the way back buy Jerry fresh croissants at the bakery for his breakfast. It was so amazing to be living there as opposed to being a tourist.

I had been taking welding classes before I had come to Paris, in Emeryville, CA, just across the Bay Bridge from San Francisco. Where I had been living and working for my cousin. I wanted to make life sized figures out of cement and because cement is so heavy I needed to know how to weld to make armatures (skeletons) inside the figures. (The cement was so heavy it needed supports inside.) I had been working on what I thought was a skeleton as my first practice piece for my welding class. At that point I only had the chest completed.

  One of the mornings as I was walking through the park, it came to me exactly what I was doing with that steel chest I was working on in welding class. I am a huge fan of writer and teacher Joseph Campbell of mythology fame. I had been very taken with the whole saga of the Heroes' Journey. I had had no intention of creating a steel sculpture, I was creating a skeleton to put cement on. But there it was INITATION. The second step of the Heroes' Journey. The Heroes' Journey has three steps Departure, Initiation and Return. With the second step, Initiation; this is the part of the Journey where the Hero is tested and faces the challenges to be able to complete the journey.

  So for the moment we will leave Rose walking in the park in Les Lilas having her Epiphany. To be continued in the next blog.

ORANGE COUNTY CENTER FOR CONTEMPORARY ART (OCCCA.ORG)

Mistress of Chaos, Sculpture, front
by Rose Rosendo

As a mid century Feminist Artist, my sculpture is influenced by other women artists. Louis Nevelson is a favorite of mine.  My large copper and cement sculpture, MISTRESS OF CHAOS, exemplifies the direct arc of her influence.

Her influence of a belief in nature's divinity is in all of my work. My use of all kinds of materials; lights, wood,  metals, glass, steel, copper, bronze, and cement extends her use of the debris she found in dumpsters in New York.

CHAOS THEORY  FEB 7-21, 2015


Mistress of Chaos
 back by Rose Rosendo

This was a show that I was in in Santa Ana, California.  The show was at the Orange County Center for Contemporary Art.  (OCCCA.org)  I was intrigued by the title of  the show CHAOS THEORY. I had just finished the piece  which is titled MISTRESS OF CHAOS and thought it would be a good fit. 

A FEMINEST ARTIST ABOUT HER ART

Raindeer Man, Sculpture

    I am of the belief that art issues are of the whole community. Spiritually they lead us-- often kicking and screaming to a place of the "Magical, Mystical Moment." This moment is rarely allowed in our culture unless we are four years old or younger. ( Hopefully this made you laugh- )

  As a feminist I create images that have meaning, and an art that finds human consequence changing attitudes, helping us to find that divinity within. I am also interested in engaging the time and place of my life and the life of my community, which is the whole planet. I am seeking to touch with my work -prints, paintings and sculptures; the wellspring of consciousness within.

   By hitting this magic spot-we join the cosmic stream of consciousness. This allows us to stop, listen, look and feel there is something greater than ourselves within. Potentials, possibilities, and power within to do all the wonderful things that need doing to create the solutions we need for the planet. It will take all of us by embracing love and life and going beyond our differences </b>

Patrick Hearn Adagio (Music Video)

Manna of the Desert, the Sustainable Garden

This is part of the write up for a painting I am working on.

Verses 16-36 of the old testament of the bible describes the miracle of bread and quail given by God to the Israelites,  who needed food during their Exodus of 40 years of wandering in the desert before coming to Israel.                                                                                  

This painting  is an ecological reminder of creating Manna in the Desert.  Using our imagination and the help of new technologies we can create a paradise in the desert and anywhere else for that matter.  This is a potency of directed will at the service of life affirming creation.