Quilt Sphinx

 Quilt Sphinx, 2024, 22"x8"x13"

paper pulp, rice paper, mixed media

Quilt Sphinx blends my paper sculptural work with my admiration for the gloriously powerful and colorful quilts that are made intuitively without a set pattern, each with their own individual essence. Hand-cut rice paper shapes stand in for fabric scraps, while glue replaces the stitches. Although this piece is visually related to much of my other artwork - mostly embroidery - that depicts classical mythological characters and stories set in a contemporary context, Quilt Sphinx stands alone as a joyful expression of form and design.

Sphinx Tapestry (Addendum)

 

Sphinx Tapestry (Addendum), 2021, hand-stitched cotton thread embroidery floss on linen, 25" x 16"

 "Functional mythology has been replaced by inadequate ideology." - Jordan Peterson

This is another piece that contemporizes an ancient Greek myth. The sphinx is made up of bomb shapes, and the wing is made up of thermometers. I stitched the background using water drop shapes, and it contains four symbols that surround the figure. Two of them denote a sense of urgency (the hourglass and the bell), and two of them point to our lowest and highest potential as humans (the saw and the circle). The saw refers to this quote from the Stanford ecologist Paul Ehrlich: "In pushing other species to extinction, humanity is busy sawing off the limb on which it perches." It's placed low under the Sphinx figure, in contrast to the circle at the top. The circle here is more complex and has layered meanings. On a mundane level, it represents the sun that's warming the planet. On a profound level, it symbolizes our transcendent wholeness, the one consciousness that we are all a part of. The idea of universality is embedded in this piece and is the antithesis of the current divisive mind virus that's been infecting much of Western culture. 

A story about the Sphinx by the 8th Cent B.C. writer Hesiod is told in the book Symbols And Legends In Western Art by E.S. Whittlesey: (The Sphinx) frequented a high rock near Thebes and waylaid travelers with the riddle, "What walks on four legs in the morning, on two at noon, and on three in the evening?" The answer is "Man"-in infancy, prime of life, and old age. Those who failed to give the correct answer were hurled to their deaths from the rock. I imagine us now collectively on a precipice with a riddle in front of us. The 'Addendum' of the title points to the idea that we need new questions: what does it mean to be human, and who are we really? The Sphinx sits on a coffin decorated with stylized hemlock. A passage about Socrates is on the opposite page in the same book: (he) was allegedly condemned to death for corrupting the youth and for impiety. The latter charge was for his belief in the immortality of the soul. Although I didn't know what he was killed for when I chose hemlock as a symbol, the story connects beautifully to my addendum question. Socrates spoke 'truth in the face of danger', an idea known as 'parrhesia' in Greek. It seems like a necessary, even urgent, imperative for our times. 

Zoomorphics in paper, wood, fabric and thread

Zoomorphic: having or representing animal forms or gods of animal form.

These mythological human-animal images are found across civilizations and cultures. Here is some of my work that depicts human-animal hybrids. Two of the earlier posts have a human-fish hybrid (Mosaic Work and Paper and Thread).

"Green Tara Sphinx" 2011

The original Greek sphinx has malevolent connotations. With "Green Tara Sphinx" I

created my own hybrid of a sphinx and a Buddhist Goddess. This piece does not reference any particular myth, but rather is open to interpretation. I like what Green Tara represents: she is a Bodhisatva of compassion and action, a protector who comes to our aid to relieve us of physical, emotional and spiritual suffering.

This one of the first sculptures I made using hand stitched images on paper, then applied as mosaic: the design on the animal body is of a scarab and on the wings, a bird.

"Kinnari" 2012

I made this piece for a show entitled "Reclamation" featuring art that re-imagined paintings, sculptures and found objects which have been discarded. I found some wooden objects from a thrift store which I recombined to make this half human half bird. I decided to call it "Kinnari" which is the name for the female version of the half-human half-bird creature from Southeast Asian Hindu mythology. A Kinnari is renowned for her dance, song and poetry, in contrast to the more odious Harpy from Western mythology. The specific meaning is less is important to me than the form itself, and I like that the title connects it to an expanded interpretation which is very different from the Greek version.

The stitched mosaic surface design on the upper body is a bird and on the lower body a primitive female form.

"Chiron" 2013

I titled this piece "Chiron"as both a reference to the Greek myth and to the planet, including its  astrological meaning. Chiron in the Greek myth was a teacher, considered to be intelligent and kind. In astrology, Chiron is symbolized as the "wounded healer". It represents our deepest work to heal our spiritual wounds and our return to greater wholeness, consciousness and love.

I used fabric rather than rice paper and thread applied on the surface and not stitched.

"Al-Buraq Pull Toy" 2013

Al-Buraq is a creature from Persian iconography that has the head of a human and

the body of a horse. I made this as a "pull-toy" with political connotations referring to Iranian culture, Islamophobia, and Western domination.

The surface is rice paper overlaid with hand cut paper and stitched and wrapped thread on paper.