LA MADRE UNIVERSAL
17" x 24", pen and ink on paper
17" x 24", pen and ink on paper
"why so many breasts? i count six! gooosh!!", gasped Andre as he stared at La Madre.
"because she's fertile. female deities before the onset of christianity had more breasts."
"if you're referring to the Venus of Willendorf... she only had two!"
"two, yes. but huge. and she's wide-hipped. i just decided to make mine more. you know, to feed more."
"and why an animal? a child? and... peeing???! daniel, your imagination is running wild! why not just give her a magic wand and as she raises it, trees and foliage appear instead of that aweful fluid oozing from her."
_________________________
i've been playing on the idea of a mother since art history classes in university, well, eons ago.
andre was right. the idea for La Madre started from the venus of willendorf, discovered in some archeological dig and was widely viewed as a representation of the earth goddess blah-blah... she stirred this idea.
_________________________
i met my own La Madre a year ago. in real life her name's Maria Socorro - a wide-hipped, full-bodied and chested woman ripe with the seeds of fertility. (it's interesting that her birthname means "help" or "aid", for she aided me in drafting this image.)
i drew maria socorro as La Madre last year but erased all traces of the drawings i did, thinking it wasn't right.
now i pick it up again and hopefully this image will be the beginning of her as an image in my mind drawn into canvas - the image of a woman - all life-giving, all powerful. from her flows the river of life. from her breasts, beast and man take sustenance. and from 'neath her skirts, she hides the secrets of her strength.
this is the seminal idea of a the universal mother.
_________________________
"because she's fertile. female deities before the onset of christianity had more breasts."
"if you're referring to the Venus of Willendorf... she only had two!"
"two, yes. but huge. and she's wide-hipped. i just decided to make mine more. you know, to feed more."
"and why an animal? a child? and... peeing???! daniel, your imagination is running wild! why not just give her a magic wand and as she raises it, trees and foliage appear instead of that aweful fluid oozing from her."
_________________________
i've been playing on the idea of a mother since art history classes in university, well, eons ago.
andre was right. the idea for La Madre started from the venus of willendorf, discovered in some archeological dig and was widely viewed as a representation of the earth goddess blah-blah... she stirred this idea.
_________________________
i met my own La Madre a year ago. in real life her name's Maria Socorro - a wide-hipped, full-bodied and chested woman ripe with the seeds of fertility. (it's interesting that her birthname means "help" or "aid", for she aided me in drafting this image.)
i drew maria socorro as La Madre last year but erased all traces of the drawings i did, thinking it wasn't right.
now i pick it up again and hopefully this image will be the beginning of her as an image in my mind drawn into canvas - the image of a woman - all life-giving, all powerful. from her flows the river of life. from her breasts, beast and man take sustenance. and from 'neath her skirts, she hides the secrets of her strength.
this is the seminal idea of a the universal mother.
_________________________
29May2006
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