HerStory: The Legacy of Judy Chicago

Driving the World to Destruction - Acrylic and oil on Belgian Linen - Judy Chicago, 1986
(Click on images for larger view.)

"I knew that I didn’t want to keep perpetuating the use of the female body as the repository of so many emotions; it seemed as if everything - love, dread, longing, loathing, desire, and terror - was projected onto the female by both male and female artists, albeit with often differing perspectives. I wondered what feelings the male body might be made to express. Also, I wanted to understand why men acted so violently.”

- Judy Chicago, describing her Power Play series (examples above & below)


"The “PowerPlay” series allowed Chicago to exploit and improve upon the cartoonish neo-expressionism of Schnabel, Kostabi, the German Neue Wilde, and other heroes of the moment, turning their pretense at angst and anomie into actual sociopolitical statements, rife with actual anger and confusion. In depicting man’s struggle to manifest aggression and maintain dominance over woman, Chicago was able to convey, even in the cruelest and most violent images, a sense of universal tragedy. Everybody loses, the “PowerPlay” paintings and studies insist, and men are as trapped in and diminished by their roles as women in and by theirs."

- Peter Frank, Huffington Post, via this David Richard Gallery blog page 

"... I found out that many women before me had broken through female roles and made themselves into successful, independent and creative people. Yet the struggles and successes of one generation did not necessarily guarantee greater ease to the women of the next. Instead of the work of one woman attesting to the potential of all women, the work was ripped out of its natural context by male historians. One historical period would allow women more freedom... Then male dominance would assert itself again. The women's achievements would be left out of recorded history, and young women could not model themselves upon the struggles and accomplishments of their mothers."

- Excerpt from Through the Flower; my struggle as a female artist

- Judy Chicago, 1973, 1977

"H. W. Janson, author of the best-selling art history textbook, History of Art (1962), was often quoted as saying that a survey necessarily included only the high points of Western art and that no women artists met that standard."

- excerpt from the .pdf file: Stepping out of the Beaten Path: Reassessing the Feminist Art Movement  by Judith Brodsky and Ferris Olin

***

Last month, I added a new section of links on Trans-D's sidebar devoted to women artists throughout history entitled: Women in Art: HerStory. I've included links which cover female artists from the manuscript illuminators of the Medieval period to the Guerrilla Girls of today, in hopes of partially filling the chasms that exist in what is generally referred to as "art history" - specifically that being taught in the latter half of the twentieth century, and, to some degree, into the 21st - and, a more comprehensive view.

In the 70s, as a young artist, I possessed two books which, to this day, have held honored positions on my shelves. The first was the biography of Georgia O'Keefe, (who will eventually be included in my Patron Sainthood series). The other is a signed paperback entitled "Through the Flower; my struggle as a woman artist" by Judy Chicago, whom I was fortunate to meet in 1994 at one of her lectures held in Connecticut. Happily, Judy Chicago is a living treasure - therefore, no "sainthood" yet!

But, that was it. Apart from Marie Cassatt, O'Keefe and Chicago (before I'd read her book) there had been no other female artists I'd been introduced to... certainly not in art school. If I judged the world situation by what I gleaned from textbooks at the time - and Janson's tome, referenced above, was required art school reading - there were no female artists of note... ever!

To some degree, the absence of women in art history textbooks has been remedied. But, are the fates of women vastly improved? It depends on who you ask.*

Then again, there seems to be a subliminal movement these days to undermine and devalue historical context across the board... as if nothing before the advent of present-day technology has any validity or viability, nor any meaningful relationship to the events of the present day. But, this is a crippling form of tunnel vision, which endows the more unfortunate aspects of our collective past a regenerative power.

Many younger women might be reminded that women in the western world weren't able to vote until 1918, and then, only over 30 years of age. And it wasn't until 1967 - less than 40 years ago - that the Declaration on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women was proclaimed. The subsequent - and legally binding document - the United Nations' 1981 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, though signed by the United States, was never ratified, and, worldwide, in the countries in which it is recognized, is rarely enforced.

The Dinner Party - installation - mixed media - 1974-1979, Judy Chicago

Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, Brooklyn Museum

Regarding Chicago, however, while "sainthood" can wait, there's never any time like the present to give credit where it's due... and, in terms of women in art history and herstory in general, no artist has contributed as much as Judy Chicago. 

Back in the 60's and 70's she was the proverbial fly in the ointment. Born July, 20, 1939, she was the first woman to singlehandedly fight the gender bias in the male-dominated art establishment that surrounded her, and she pulled no punches. In regards to her own art, she ignored the gender-imposed limitations of her time and sought instruction outside the traditional venues; she learned to spray paint in an auto body shop, learned to work in plastics, and trained in pyrotechnics for her own displays. In1970, in Fresno, California, she founded and taught the first feminist art program, and, in the following year, a program at CalArts in Los Angeles. In 1971, she - along with Miriam Schapiro, and, initially, Paula Hays - opened the first female-centered art installation, Womanhouse.

Around the same time, Chicago began questioning documented history, specifically searching for women's contributions to the arts and the sciences which, up till that time, was an obscure, "underground" line of inquiry - a parallel "herstory" desperately in need of rescue and redemption. She began ferreting out the stories of those uncelebrated women, which, in 1974, inspired one of her most notorious, timeless, and critically-acclaimed installations: The Dinner Party, ultimately a collaborative work that would take 6 years to complete.

Detail of The Dinner Party installation: Elizabeth Blackwell's setting - 1974-1979, Judy Chicago
Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, Brooklyn Museum

The Dinner Party is described on the Brooklyn Museum site, where the installation is now a permanent exhibit, as: "an icon of feminist art, which represents 1,038 women in history; 39 women are represented by place settings and another 999 names are inscribed in the Heritage Floor on which the table rests. This monumental work of art is comprised of a triangular table divided by three wings, each 48 feet long."

Above and below are several details of The Dinner Party, with their corresponding links.

Dinner plates From The Dinner Party installation (Left to right):
Georgia O'Keefe, Petronilla de Meath, Hypatia, Trotula.
1974-1979, Judy Chicago

Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, Brooklyn Museum

Since the time of The Dinner Party, Chicago has been prolific as an artist, committed as teacher, and, as an activist, remains a perennial force to be reckoned with. Combining her broad understanding of the human condition and an intimate relationship with her own personal, visionary process, Judy Chicago is as vital and relevant today as she was at any point in the past.

She now resides in New Mexico with her husband, photographer Donald Woodman, teaching and working under the auspices of her non-profit feminist art organization, Through the Flower.

The Three Faces of Man - Sprayed acrylic and oil on Belgian Linen - Judy Chicago, 1985

Above is another of Chicago's paintings from her Power Play series: The Three Faces of Man. Metaphorically concise, to the point of being grotesque, it's pretty powerful stuff. But, hey, wait a minute, wasn't this cat in the news not too long ago? Life imitating art seems to be the order of the millennium!

Below is a 2010 YouTube video of Judy Chicago discussing feminist art. Another video - as the recipient of the 2011 Governor's Award, can be found here. Also, a recent (March 1, 2013) PBS special featuring an interview with Chicago - "Makers: Women Who Make America" - can be found here.

By the way, I recently learned it's "Women's History Month", so, despite the fact that this post has been sitting in draft-mode since January, now seems like a fine time to post it.

Well, sort of. That is, if "history" months - be they women's history month, black history month or national dog history month - weren't just so much patronizing BS. You'll note, for instance, there seems to be no cause for a designated "White Male History" month...

Anyway, it gets worse. I learned today that "International Women's Day" was held on March 8. Oh, you missed it, too? Well, look at it this way: if you were fully human, or, maybe just male, every day, in the official world, would be your day.

***

* In regards to woman in the sciences, they are perhaps in need of redemption more than women in the arts. Nature, the international journal of science, has several articles addressing the subject, found here, here, and here... with a more optimistic viewpoint found here.



Judy Chicago's quotes and images have been posted here with permission from the artist.

Judy Chicago:
Website: http://www.judychicago.com/
Through the Flower: http://www.throughtheflower.org/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ThroughtheFlower


Update 6/24/13: Two members of the Russian Punk band, Pussy Riot, become special guests at the Dinner Party.  Also: the NY Times article, and a New Statesman article: Pussy Riot: "People fear us because we're feminists".

Andromeda - She Who Waits

Image: Andromeda - Digital - 2006, DS
Litany Against Fear - 1965, Frank Herbert

"In Frank Herbert's 1965 novel Dune, the Bene Gesserit are a secretive matriarchal order who have achieved somewhat superhuman abilities through physical and mental conditioning and the use of the drug melange. Under the guise of humbly "serving" the Empire, the Sisterhood is in fact a major power in the universe, using its many areas of influence to subtly guide mankind along the path of their own plan for humanity's future."

- Wiki entry for "Bene Gesserit"

If serenity is the flip-side of fear, then that might explain why my 2006 image,"Andromeda", came to mind recently. But, it's hard to say, because Andromeda was a muse-generated image, and, in that tradition, no pre-meditation was involved, nor significance implied. I simply knew when my work was correct, incorrect, and when it was finished - not consciously what it represented.

In keeping with muse tradition, the name "Andromeda", itself, was spontaneously given. But, figuring it might be a clue to where I want to go with this post - as I came to the conclusion I should post the image -  I did my obligatory pre-post web-search.

The Greek myth of Andromeda, itself, told me nothing. A damsel in distress is saved by a hero, in this case Perseus... eventually begets his spawn, and then is transformed into a heavenly body: the "Chained Maiden". *

That story.

Regarding the Andromeda galaxy, while there are a couple of anomalies (see here and here), the most remarkable thing about it is the possibility it may crash or merge with our own Milky Way in about 4.5 billion years.**

Perhaps that's what "she who waits"  is waiting for...

Originally, my own take on the image, was that it reminded me of an icon of some extraterrestrial - or, perhaps, futuristic posthumanist - religious figure. Something along the lines of Frank Herbert's Bene Gesserits from his 1965 sci-fi (or, better yet, "psi-fi") novel Dune.

Then again, I created my own female ET religious order at some point in the early 1970's, for a sci-fi children's story: the Makyrr. The Makyrr were an avian race, originating from somewhere in the constellation of Lyra, who seeded a number of habitable planets with a variety of organic life. Andromeda, however, is not a representation of a Makyrr, who wore winged headdresses and had more bird-like features.

Then, I got to thinking about female religious orders... but, specifically those of fiction and fantasy, and utterly unrelated to Christian nunneries and the like (i.e., those orders devoted to the prevalent patriarchal dogma). And, it came to me that perhaps many women unconsciously enfold their own inner Bene Gesserit; a subliminal response to the male deities, male saviors and male excuses for the subjugation of the female gender, with which women been conditioned with since infancy.

And then the eureka moment arrived when my cousin, with whom I'm staying - and who is, apparently, Catholic - mentioned that a new Catholic pope was being designated today. Ah, said I...  so, there you have it... Andromeda, the perfect, heretical response. So serene, she's like the still point on an axis... silently smiling... waiting... waiting.

Bene Gesserit Litany Against Fear

(an incantation)

"I must not fear.

Fear is the mind-killer.

Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.

I will face my fear.

I will permit it to pass over me and through me.

And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.

Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.

Only I will remain."

- Frank Herbert, Dune, 1965

P.S. Incidentally, there may have been a female pope at one point in history, illustrated as one of the major arcana cards of the earlier tarot decks: see Pope Joan.

*  Interestingly, the name "Andromeda" actually translates from the Greek into: "ruler of men".

** (Update: 6/7/13) Then again, according to this recent article, Andromeda already has collided with the Milky Way in the long past!

***

10/13/15 Update: 

I've just exchanged the Andromeda image for the Litany Against Fear/Andromeda mash-up you now see at the beginning of the post. Recently, I printed it out and hung it on the wall by my computer. Feel free to do the same.

Fear of Living Theatre presents...

Fear of Living Theatre - Pen and Ink - 1981, "N.S." (click to enlarge)

Translatable comic captions (frame by frame):

FEAR OF LIVING THEATRE presents "Antonia and Olga" (Modern Romance #1)

1) On sunny days, people stare out their windows.

2) On dark days, people stare out their windows.

3) One dark day...

4) Antonio, a hot young stud...

5) happened to be staring out his window...

6) while, across the street,

7) that cute slut, Olga

8) was staring out hers.

9) Their eyes met.

10) He got hard, right off the bat.

She got sick, and almost threw up.

11) He tried to communicate.

(Balloon: "Hey sweetie, wanna fuck?")

12) She was not impressed.

(Balloon: "Drop dead, dickhead!")

13) He tried to spit at her, but she was too far away.

14) She would've shot him, but she'd left her gun at the laundromat.

15) So, the next day...

16) He put up Venetian blinds -

she put in an air conditioner.

17) (Balloon: "And that's all, folks!")

END

***

I'm back... sort of. Although I'm still in transition - a woman without a permanent address - I do have some web access, so, I thought I'd put up one more FOL.

Apparently, I'm still feeling the "fear". 

Normal posting will commence sooner or later. At which point, this post, and both the previous and the initial Fear of Living posts will be removed (from this spot) and posted on a separate pages.

Peace out.

More "FEAR" !

"Fear of Living" promotional panel - pen & ink - 1981, DS (as N.S.) - Published in the East Village Eye, 1982

Translatable comic captions (frame by frame):

1) Why are these men smiling?

2)  A) They're stiffs.

3)  B) It's all done with strings.

4)  C) Drugs.

5)  D) Plastic surgery.

6)  E) They're being paid for it.

7)  O)

8)  X) (Balloon: "I don't know but I wish they'd stop!")

psi)  FEAR OF LIVING COMICS

9)  9) You call this smiling?

"Fear of Living" "People" panel - pen & ink - 1981, DS as (N.S.) - Published in the East Village Eye, 1982

Translatable comic captions (frame by frame):

1) FEAR OF LIVING COMICS

2) "People,

3) People

4) who need

5) people...

6) are the luckiest people

9) in the

10) world..."

11) (Lower half) (Balloon: Frankly, I like cats better...)

END

***

Why more "Fear of Living"?

Oh, I guess I'm just "in the mood", so to speak... whether y'all are or not! ;-)

(Besides which, I always hated that Streisand song...)

Incidentally, for those who can't read english... or, just can't read my cartoon writing, I'm going to add a paragraph of translatable script below, as I did just now in the previous panel.

(Note: If these strips appear blurry - trying clicking on, and viewing the larger size...)

MORE "FEAR"!

Comic Relief - "Fear of Living"

FOL Comic Panel - Pen and Ink - 1981, DS (click to enlarge)

Translatable comic captions (frame by frame):

1) FEAR OF LIVING

2) It snowed last night...

3) 10 people were killed

4) Because they did not stay in their houses!

5) 6 of the dead will be buried...

6) The other 4 will soon appear on a TV talk show,

(Balloons: "So, what's it like to be dead?"

"It could be worse"

"I miss my cigarettes")

7) write books, and endorse a laundry detergent.

"DEADLY SNOW"

8) (T-shirt:"You, too, can be a star!")

Remember: death sells!

9) So, next time it snows, do yourself a favor...

(Balloons: "It's kind of quiet here, but we like it."

"And it's cheap, too")

10) Get out of the house!

(Arrow text: Your house)

(Lower 1/2)  END

(Balloon: "Not me, I hate snow!")

Time: 1981.  Place: Lower East Side, New York City.  Consciousness: Enhanced.

Just dug this out of the files a few minutes ago and had my first and last laugh of the day (it being midnight). You kind of had to be there.  But, I don't know, it's still relevant in the sense that, as bad as anything ever is, the media blitz makes it worse. At least, that was one of my pet themes with "Fear of Living Comics"... I'll let you figure out the rest of them.

Anyway, if you're out there right now (and still have power), Jada, this one's for you! :-)

Added note, for the sake of context: "Fear of Living" was a short series of comic strips - 5 or 6 panels  -  I inked in Manhattan in 1981 as "N.S.". The first (above) was never submitted, but the others were published as small spots in The East Village Eye.


Below is a "glam" shot of myself  taken around that time by a photographer friend.

The Artist Not at Work ,1983 - Photo Credit: Steve MacNichol

More "FEAR"!

In Search of a Virtual Window (Updated)

Labradorite Window detail - Digital - DS 2013
(Click to enlarge.)

The graphic above (Note: Original graphic has been replaced with a different version.) charts the progress of the labradorite window I mentioned in my previous post. Of course it helps to know what sort of portal one means by "window" before one attempts to create a virtual one. In the very early days of this project, the window was opaque, and for the most part metaphorical. I wanted something that was so organic that it appeared to have literally grown into place. The "place" was in the middle of a stone slab. I didn't think too much about the slab. I knew it was on the ground. As far as the "labradorite window", originally the idea emerged from a line of a poem I wrote in 2009:
"I lie on a bed of labradorite; of labradorite is my window."

I pretty much abandoned the poem, as my muse had little else to say, but the idea of a labradorite window intrigued me. I wanted to see it, which is pretty much the definition of art for an artist: that is, things we need to see. I'm not sure when I began fashioning it's size and overall shape... but, I had in mind a stained-glass-like "rose window"; the sort one sees in the great cathedrals, but on a smaller scale, and, as mentioned, not really a window at all. I also knew the panes of labradorite would fit together in an organic array, which is when my mind hit upon the idea of the meteorite. Below is the results of my initial attempts at developing a meteorite "shell". I thought that it only remained to fill in the pockets of my faux meteorite via my airbrush tool.

Wrong. After a number of failed attempts I just placed the whole project in the "Someday Maybe" file and moved on.

It was only recently that I began playing with it again. For whatever reason, I started airbrushing a metal swirl pattern over my meteorite, and, during this process, it came to me finally just what sort of window I was seeing in my middle eye.

Yes, the labradorite window is still in the center of stone slab lying flat on the ground... but it is not just some weird mineral deposit, as I imagined previously. It is an actual, translucent stained-glass window created to represent a metaphorical portal to an ancient, underground chamber.

Ah, but that's another story. Meanwhile, I'm progressing slowly with the project, though it feels like more of a craft project at this point, and a labor-intensive one at that. The previous image showed a view of the window laid over the framework of the faux meteorite shell... the new one displays, instead, the marble-like slab in which the window is embedded. The grey/green segments represent blanks awaiting to be filled. I'm experimenting with labradorite patterns presently, and there's a long way to go... and it suffers in a low-resolution format but, I think you get the idea. Incidentally, that purplish segment represents a variety of labradorite known as "Peacock". The whitish stones represent Rainbow Moonstone, another variety of labradorite.

As it stands, it's going to be fairly chaotic in meat-space for me over the next few weeks - the big move is about to take place -  but, I've begun laying the plans for my next Patron Saint post. See you then!

"Meteorite" Window in full - DS 2011
(Click on for larger view.)

Labradorescence... Though the Eye of a Flatbed Scanner

4 separate scans - shot from 4 different angles - of a labradorite pendant cabochon
(click to enlarge)

"An Inuit legend says that long ago the Northern Lights fell from the sky and were trapped inside some rocks off the coast of Labrador. One day, an Inuit warrior came upon these rocks and tried to set the Northern Lights free. With blows from his spear, he was able to release most of the lights, but some still remained to be permanently imprisoned within the rocks. The trapped Northern Lights are what give the stone we know today as labradorite its brilliant flashes of light and color."

- Labradorite lore via this web page


"Labradorescence is a side-effect of the molecular change which occurs in large crystal masses of anorthosite, producing an iridescent play of colors. This labradorescence, or schiller effect, is the result of light diffraction within the lamellar intergrowths – fine, adjacent layers of the separate materials (lamellae) comprising the whole rock phase – created when conditions do not allow for sufficient diffusion to the materials' equilibrium composition.

The cause of this optical phenomenon is phase exsolution, or phase (state) instability, occurring in the Bøggild miscibility gap (An48-An58); under the appropriate heat and pressure conditions the separate molecular components will coexist but not mix to a solution, producing the phenomenon."

- Via Wiki's labradorite entry


"Labradorite is said to represent the "temple of the stars"... It brings the light of the other planetary beings to the soul of the user. The labradorescence is a luminescence, derived from extraterrestrial origin, which is enclosed in the mineral to bring the galactic evolved energies from other worlds to the Earth plane."

- Via this web page

***

Originally this post was going to welcome in the new year and feature a long-standing work in progress, "Labradorite Window". Well, that was the plan, at any rate. But, as it so happened, and so often happens, neither the image (nor the order of the day) really cooperated, while, at the same time, something new was added to the mix. That is, the above scan - of a favorite pendant of mine - representing yet another facet of a mysterious gem, known as labradorite.

Labradorite is named for the area it was "discovered" in 1770: Labrador, Canada. In reality, however, it has been found in numerous places, and traced as far back in time as the ancient Greeks, who knew it as "Black Moonstone".

I've only known about labradorite for around 15 years, finding my first piece - a sphere - in a metaphysical book shop here in CT. I stared at it for a long time initially, thinking I must be hallucinating, it was that unearthly beautiful. I felt a similar awe when I encountered my first comb jelly years before (see here). Maybe it's just something about flashes of electric blue light found in unlikely places that mesmerizes me. In any case, I learned the mineral's name and bought the sphere, which was astoundingly inexpensive, all things considered.

But, even a few years later, I could find very little about it online. Today, on the other hand, there's hundreds of links and images extolling its virtues; though often the memes being shared are repeated and distorted along the way. The information you might find is sometimes technical, but, far more often, overwhelmingly esoteric, and not always accurate.

I had scanned my labradorite pendant in the past, but never from different angles... and the one anomaly I missed, and one point of this post, was just how inaccurate a scanner can be. It doesn't, after all, faithfully record a 3D object. It interprets the object, and, when confronted with transparent or translucent objects, the scanner compensates for its disability by creating a new object altogether! (By the way, when scanning the labradorite, the scanner cover was left open, and nothing was placed on top of the pendant.)

If you looked at the above image, for instance - which is actually 4 separate scans combined - you might imagine the labradorite cabochon is solid and opaque in places. While the scan is, in a sense, describing how labradorescence actually works - possibly similar to recent scientific efforts to produce an invisibility cloak (?) - the image is hopelessly wrong. Looking at it, we might safely assume the schiller effect is floating across the surface of a chunk of brownish substrate. Looking at the images below, however - courtesy of my monitor's camera - the reality is something else again. In these three shots I am shining a small flashlight through the pendant. Though one can see the inclusions that may have created the overall pattern, the "substrate" does not exist. There is nothing remotely opaque in the cabochon. It is, for the most part, transparent.

Or is it? Wiki's description of labradorescence is muddied with technical terms. ("Extra-terrestrial" in the third quote is actually preferable... and, it might not be be all fantasy; apparently labradorite is found in meteors...) A simpler explanation is given by Merriam-Webster:  "A play of colors or colored reflections exhibited esp. by labradorite and caused by internal structures that selectively reflect only certain colors." (Other descriptions, in laymen's terms, may be found here or here.) But, I'm not sure any definition of labradorescence really describes the situation with the scan. Perhaps there's something about labradorescence that is, as of yet, unknown. After all, the rough gem is often found attached to just such a substrate as we see in the scan. Is the scanner actually showing us a residual image of the gem's past recorded in the labradorite's many layers, or is it a holographic-like mirage created by the scanner's deficiencies?

If you've ever witnessed labradorite in the flesh, you can attest to its innate mystery. And, if you, like a number of other people - including myself - are utterly transfixed by the sight of it, you, too, might attribute your fascination to some "unknown" factor.

As for my labradorite window, well, it's got a long way to go. Meanwhile, feast your eyes on some gorgeous specimens of the stone (which can be found as shown below: in the rough, as spheres, and as jewelry. But, also in sculpture: see here and here)... and have a happy new year!

Note on the above images (click to enlarge): The link to the first, on your left, can no longer be found. The sphere in the center, however, is sold here... and the beautiful pendant on your right can be found (as of this writing) in this Etsy shop. Incidentally, the morpho-butterfly-wing-under-glass effect found in this pendant is similar to my own.

A later added note: For all you alien lovers out there, there's actually several connections between this post and my last, "The Doors of Perception"... Funny how one can forget their own personal mythology consciously, but, on an unconscious level, the same roads are travelled again and again!

The Doors of Perception (9/1/25: video repaired)

Doors of Perception - digital - Copyright, 2011, Dia Sobin

"If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite."

- William Blake, from The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, 1793

***

“There are things known and there are things unknown, and in between are the doors of perception.”

"To be shaken out of the ruts of ordinary perception, to be shown for a few timeless hours the outer and the inner world, not as they appear to an animal obsessed with survival or to a human being obsessed with words and notions, but as they are apprehended, directly and unconditionally, by Mind at Large - this is an experience of inestimable value... The man who comes back through the Door in the Wall will never be quite the same as the man who went out. He will be wiser but less cocksure, happier but less self-satisfied, humbler in acknowledging his ignorance yet better equipped to understand the relationship of words to things, of systematic reasoning to the unfathomable Mystery which it tries, forever vainly, to comprehend."

"The various “other worlds,” with which human beings erratically make contact are so many elements in the totality of the awareness belonging to Mind at Large. Most people, most of the time, know only what comes through the reducing valve and is consecrated as genuinely real by the local language. Certain persons, however, seem to be born with a kind of by-pass that circumvents the reducing valve. In others temporary by-passes may be acquired either spontaneously, or as the result of deliberate “spiritual exercises,” or through hypnosis, or by means of drugs. Through these permanent or temporary by-passes there flows, not indeed the perception “of everything that is happening everywhere in the universe” (for the by-pass does not abolish the reducing valve, which still excludes the total content of Mind at Large), but something more than, and above all something different from, the carefully selected utilitarian material which our narrowed, individual minds regard as a complete, or at least sufficient, picture of reality.”

- three excerpts from The Doors of Perception, Aldous Huxley, 1954

***

Trade winds find Galleons lost in the sea 

I know where treasure is waiting for me 

Silver and gold in the mountains of Spain 

I have to see you again and again 

Take me, Spanish Caravan 

Yes, I know you can."

- Spanish Caravan - The Doors*, 1968, from Waiting for the Sun 

***

I had a semi-eureka moment the other night. I was reading the posthumously published book of a friend (mentioned in previously posts), Mac Tonnies - the first volume of an edited transcription of his Posthuman Blues blog - when I came across a 2003 discussion of anomalous arial phenomena (UFOs), and his speculative proposition (inspired by Rudy Rucker's Spaceland) suggesting they may be cross-sections of 4-dimensional objects moving through 3-dimensional space. He compares this hypothetical 4-D world with the idea of a vast "multiverse", but its phenomena would only be visible to we 3-D "Flatlanders" at points of intersection... sort of a complex version of the "tip of the iceberg" appearing on the surface of the ocean - it's what we can't see that defines it in totality.

He goes on to say that, it stands to reason, we might theoretically coexist with the generators of these "aerial phenomena" - assuming some variety of intelligence is involved. 

As it happened, I had recently posted a quotation from Michio Kaku, a String-Theory physicist, on my memorial blog, Post-Mac Blues, which intimated a similar idea in the form of possible parallel worlds, in which we theoretically might co-exist with a range of probable realities populated with a whole host of "others", up to and including loved ones who have died, and other versions of ourselves, as well. And, keep in mind, String Theory proposes as many as eleven dimensions to play with!

Seemingly, transdimensional reality comes off like science fiction, but, in a sense, we experience a form of it on a continual basis; co-existing with the seemingly dimension-less phenomena of our own unconscious minds. Dreams, for instance, fall into this arena, They, too, may intimate experiences we are forced to translate using the limited language of three dimensions, with our equally as limited "official" set of senses. The experience of levitating or flying, for example, which, in my own dreams, initially entails allowing oneself to fall - albeit at an oblique angle - into space, might be describing a more complex manifestation on another plane, or, for that matter, the vestiges of a race memory wholly outside of the conventional range of spacetime... you might say, an inner-dimensional** reality. Some dreams, then, may represent those same "tips of the iceberg", with their true breadth extending in a whole range of enfolded directions.

Ghosts, and other anomalous visual phenomena might also find their origin in a transdimensional reality whereas, once again, our experience is partially obscured by the nuts and bolts of our 3-dimensional range. We see what (to some of us) is apparently visible... but only to a certain degree... and possibly only at certain angles in what one can reluctantly refer to as a moment in spacetime. True perception is thereby incremental... like tuning in a station on a radio; our window for experiencing certain phenomena is, apparently, extremely small.

Of course, in the light of the brick wall effect of corporeal reality, all of this seems fairly moot. Which is probably what I meant when I created "Doors of Perception". Look, but don't see. On the other hand, I sense an underlying mystery about this image... as if its facade was created by an extra-terrestrial race. At the same time, during the process of its creation, a key phrase emerged in my mind -"false doors" - possibly referring to those which decorated Egyptian tombs. The "Ka" doors (an example is pictured above, left) were more than embellishments, however, they were the means by which the dead might re-enter the earthly plane and communicate with the living. The enigmatic Nabatean race included similar doors, and windows - referred to as "god blocks" - on the surface of their tombs at Petra (above, right). When you think about it, these solid, physically impenetrable "openings" are very strange. Obviously, their dead could walk through walls - and our enterprising ancients designated exactly where these portals should exist.

For Aldous Huxley, (July 26,1894 – November 22,1963), the "doors of perception" were thrown open via certain altered states of consciousness, either natural and spontaneous, or artificially "manufactured". His 1954 extended essay, The Doors of Perception was a chronicle of his experience with mescaline. He, in turn, borrowed that title from the inspired ravings of William Blake, a visionary artist and poet who was born in the previous century (November 28, 1757 – August 12, 1827).

Huxley's doors were the doors of inner-dimensions, the "Mind at Large", but one suspects the doors might swing both ways, from microcosmic to macrocosmic, from personal to transpersonal, from universal to multiversal.

It was Huxley's doors, in turn, which inspired the name of the 1960's rock band, The Doors. They, according to legend, were no strangers to psychedelic enhancement. As a teenager, it was the latter Doors who introduced me to both Blake and Huxley. Pop culture does have it's beneficial side-effects. Which, I suppose, is my excuse for indulging myself with the Doors video at the bottom of the post.

"Spanish Caravan" does relate in a weird way though... in that. it initially seems like no more than a beguiling, substance-drenched ditty - or an ode to a favorite vacation spot - set to the Doors' standard Disneyland-in-Hell - or, better even, Carnival of Souls - orchestral sound. But, to the discerning traveller, "Spain" and "Andalusia" are not corporeal destinations. Translated by the sultry voice of Jim Morrison,  (December 8, 1943 – July 3, 1971) - the Sidewinder Shaman, and self-proclaimed Lizard King - the lyrics transform into an alchemical cryptogram, intimating a subliminal dimension which houses the proverbial philosopher's stone - the mystical El Dorado of the spiritual realm - which must be experienced "again and again". In the grainy "Live in Europe" clip below, this song takes no prisoners.

What is the "Spanish Caravan"? A "Magic Bus" ? The mother of all mother-ships? Death? Who cares. Morrison assured us that it could "take" him. We assumed we were welcome to come along for the ride... if we dared.

* The lyrics to Spanish Caravan were actually penned by Doors guitarist, Robby Krieger.

** "Interdimensional" is a word in use, coined by Jacques Vallee, which he used to describe UFO phenomena, but is not exactly what I'm referring to here. On the other hand, these cosmic portals might be the macrocosmic expression of what I'm attempting to describe.

Note: For those interested in a mash-up of ideas referred to in this post plus, you might try familiarizing yourself with the writings of Clifford Pickover, his website or blog.

(Another note: For those of you familiar with this blog, you actually have seen a portion of my image "Doors of Perception" in a past post.)

Time for a Change

Well, it's been over a year since Trans-D came into being, and while I liked the original graphic scheme (a snippet can be found here) - which seemed to be compatible, color-wise, with my own work, I was beginning to get turned off by the predominant shades of brown. I am always happiest with black! I'll still be tweaking it as time goes by, but, unless a whole lot of people inform me that they HATE it  - and really, you're allowed - and prefer the original, this... is... it!

(Later...) Okay, I guess I sort of worked out the bugs in this design, so hopefully it appears okay, regardless of varying monitor screens. Of course, depending upon what sort of gadget you're viewing this blog on, the background might not appear at all, but I just added the screen shot above for reference.

I also learned something new: .png files, regardless of the dimensions, do not change much in actual byte size. Which is kind of cool.

By the way, the background is the result of scanning some round glass cabochons with a scrap of black fabric laid over them. Interestingly, the cabochons were laid flat on the screen, but somehow took on a perspective in the  scan... a happy accident related to optics I hadn't foreseen.

But, no, the fabric is not velvet - thank you very much! ;-)

Patron Saint #9: Kay Sage - "I Walk Without Echo"

The Instant - Oil on canvas - Kay Sage, 1949 - Mattatuck Museum, CT

“I can’t tell you what it would mean to most people, but I do know what it means to me. It’s a sort of showing what’s inside - things half mechanical, half alive. The mountain itself can represent almost anything - a human being, life, the world, any fundamental thing.” 

- Kay Sage, Time magazine, March 13, 1950, on her painting "The Instant"

"Consider Kay Sage (1898-1963) the anti-Thomas Kinkade. She was America’s great painter of menace, dread, and the post-apocalyptic future. Her trademark was “the sulphurous light before a thunderstorm,” observed biographer Régine Tessier. Like a thunderstorm, Sage’s art could be depressing and exhilarating. A true contrarian might nominate Sage as the best of all the Western Hemisphere surrealists."

- excerpt from Kay Sage, Painter of an Odd Future - William Poundstone

via an April 30, 2012 Art Info article


"And what's in it for me my pretty young thing?
Why should I whistle, when the caged bird sings?
If you lose a wager with the king of the sea
You'll spend the rest of forever in the cage with me"

- Verse from "Soul Cages" - Sting - 1991

***

The "anti-Thomas Kinkade" is an apt description for Kay Sage, American Surrealist, who found her artistic voice in Paris in the late 1930's, at the age of 44. Counterpoint to Kincaide's illustrations of lush, kitschy cottages in idealized, antiquated country settings, we have Sage's silent and spare views of some timeless, alien stratosphere. Then again, in comparison to the veritable cottage industry (pun intended) generated by Thomas Kincade (January 19, 1958 – April 6, 2012) Sage's subliminal messages on canvas are relatively obscure.

"! Walk Without Echo" was the title of the posthumous exhibit of Sage's collection in Mattatuck Museum, Connecticut, 2007. I'm not sure if this line was taken from one of her poems, a journal entry, or the creation of the curator, but it, too, is an apt description of Sage's work, and, perhaps, an ironic illusion to her legacy as an artist. (Regarding all images which follow - click on for a larger view.)
 

In the Third Sleep - Oil on Canvas - Kay Sage,1944 - The Art Institute of Chicago

Despite having been associated with the coveted circle of artists that surrounded Andre Breton, the founder of Surrealism, in the early half of the 20th century, Sage was a peripheral figure, never to know the encouragement and acceptance afforded to male members of that regime. Of course, the Surrealist movement was famous for its inherent misogynistic stance, but Sage was especially unpopular. To begin with, she hailed from the upper-crust  bourgeoisie, and had been married previously to an Italian nobleman. Her presence in Paris was only made possible by an inheritance from her deceased father. As it so happened, she was intensely disliked as a matter of course by the other artists and their wives, especially when she married Yves Tanguy, a Surrealist illuminary. Their alliance apparently enraged Breton to such a degree that his deep friendship with Tanguy eventually evaporated in 1949. All of this, in spite of the fact, that it was, albeit indirectly, through Sage that Breton, and a number of other Surrealists, were able to flee Paris at the beginning of World War II, and relocate to New York. Apparently, even as guests to the Tanguy's eventual home in Woodbury, Connecticut, Kay Sage would not win any lasting friendships within the Surrealist cabal. As late as 1974, and more than a decade after Sage's death, Enrico Donati still found it necessary to remark:

"Tanguy was the painter. I mean, we were the friends of Tanguy because he was the painter, the master. She was his wife, but we went there, to Woodbury, to see Tanguy. She was Mrs. Tanguy so she was there, too, but he was our friend. She was the friend of nobody." * 

The journalists of the day were no better. After a Sage painting  had won 1st prize in the Eastern States Exposition - in which Tanguy had also exhibited -  in Connecticut in 1951, the Hartford Times reported the news under the headline: "Housewife Wins Art Exhibition".

Danger, Construction Ahead- Oil on canvas - Kay Sage, 194o - Yale University Art Gallery

As tragic a figure as Kay Sage was in many respects, I think in the last analysis, her work resonates more with the 21st century zeitgeist than most of her more celebrated peers. And, unlike them - with the exception of Tanguy and Matta - her paintings portray an inner reality witnessed, and masterfully documented, as opposed to a number of Surrealistic creations which were contrived primarily to shock and/or entertain. We may not be able to name the world in which Kay Sage's psyche wandered, but that she wandered there is something we immediately accept. We may not, for that matter, find her observations of this enigmatic world altogether pleasant - few have; often describing her images as dismal and devoid of life - but we never question their validity. My personal interpretation, however, is that "life", or its metaphor, is certainly apparent in her work. It is organic life which is represented by the swathes of wind-blown, or, preternaturally suspended fabric, undulating silently and phantom-like within each of her eerie linear vistas. Presented as a life-form in this way, the fabric takes on an immortal aspect - an almost sentient presence - while, at the same time, transcends the limits imposed by both gender and species. Often, Sage's vistas have the ambience of seascapes receding to a blank, ocean-like horizon. Upon closer inspection, however, the backgrounds are not comprised of water at all, but are of a static substance, engraved with geometric abstractions.  This is especially true in the painting "In the Third Sleep" (second image from the top), a strange image which brings to mind a landing strip on an almost Martian-like planet.**

  As for it, and the image "Danger, Construction Ahead" (directly above), both are examples of paintings that may have spawned half a dozen contemporary Sci-Fi illustrators, despite having been painted in the 1940's.

On the First of March, Crows Begin to Search - Oil on canvas - Kay Sage,1947 - Wellesley College, MA

That being said, most of Sage's contemporaries describe her as being introverted, distant, and somewhat chilly in comparison to Tanguy, the proverbial life of the party. And comparing the work of the two artists, one might find evidence of this. Both artists drew their inspiration from inner  - almost paranormal - dimensions (see this description of Tanguy's work), and both artists, to some degree, were influenced by the early work of de Chirico. But, whereas Tanguy's biomorphic shapes (see "Phantoms" below) are somewhat whimsical, Sage's strange figures generally are not (with the possible exception of the image above). Later in her career, she developed an attraction to a variety of latticework (see detail below), solemn structures, in which her biomorphic fabrics are trapped within... veritable "Soul Cages" looming over a murky, slack water.

(Left) Phantoms - Oil on Canvas - YvesTanguy, 1928
(Center) Photo of Kay Sage with her painting, Suspension Bridge for Swallows, 1957 
(Right) Detail of Tomorrow is Never - Oil on canvas - Kay Sage, 1955 - Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY

As it stands, had I written this post 20 years ago, Patron Saint # 9 would've probably been Kay Sage's husband, Yves Tanguy - who, incidentally, was both friend and mentor to Matta, Patron Saint #2 - the more celebrated Surrealist. I hadn't even known about Kay Sage 20 years ago. Why is this? Well, for the same reason I hadn't known about Surrealist painter, Leonora Carrington***, the lover of the Surrealist, Max Ernst, 20 years ago... nor, for that matter, Surrealist artist and designer, Dorothea Tanning, Ernst's second wife. Female artists who bonded with male artists in the 20th Century did so at the risk of anonymity, most especially in the Surrealist community, where women may have been idealized as muses and objets d'art in themselves, but thoroughly dismissed as intellectual and creative equals. Another case in point, the Surrealist, Gerrie von Pribosic Gutmann, wife of the photographer and painter, John Gutmann. Ever hear of her? I'm willing to bet you haven't. She has a handful of paintings in cyberspace and no Wiki entry. A number of links to Imogen Cunninghams's photographic portrait of Gerri Gutmann is what you're most likely to find in a search.

Photo of John and Gerri Gutmann found here

Not all Surrealists in the dual role of Surrealist wife/Surrealist artist fell into obscurity, however. Frida Kahlo (deservedly) was to eventually outshine her husband, Diego Rivera, as the world slipped into the 21st century. Then again, if it means anything, both Carrington and Tanning out-lived Max Ernst by decades - Carrington passing away in 2011 at the age of 94, and Tanning, earlier this year at the age of 101 - both artists remaining prolific and relevant till their very last dance. Sage and Gutmann, however, did not fare so well. Eight years after the death of Tanguy in 1955 (due to a cerebral hemorrhage), Kay Sage, despondent, and in ill health, fatally shot herself through the heart, January, 1963. As for Gerrie Gutmann, her suicide is currently no more than a mere caption to one of her husband's photographs online.

And, once again, referring to the "enlightenment" one is likely to find in cyberspace, we only have to look at the roster of artists included in Wiki's definitive collection: WikiPaintings, Visual Art Encyclopedia. Neither Sage, Carrington, Tanning (nor, for that matter, my previous female "Patron Saints":  Alice Pelton, Louise Nevelson, Vali Meyers, and Sakiko Ide) are included. (Note: Thomas Kincaide, on the other hand, is.)

Below is a video featuring a collection of Kay Sage's work. The video, along with a content description and short biography of Sage can be found here.

For those who might be interested, Kay Sage's posthumously published memoirs - "China Eggs" - covering the period from 1910-1935 can be found for sale in limited form on the net. Apparently this is a paperback edition published in 1996. However, I note that a mysterious hardcover edition does exist, supposedly published in 1955. Very curious.

* My major source of reference for this post, and, for which I am grateful, is Judith D. Souther's biography of Sage, A House of Her Own, Kay Sage, Solitary Surrealist.

** (Footnote added 12/10/12) Regarding Sage's "static substance, engraved with geometric abstractions", it occurs to me now that they might also appear as the detritus in the foreground of the first image "The Instant"... in this case, appearing as the dismantled platform. The word which first came to my mind, however, was "deconstructed", which has an interesting definition which may or may not be relative, but, I'll copy it here anyway: "to analyze (a text or a linguistic or conceptual system) by deconstruction, typically in order to expose its hidden internal assumptions and contradictions and subvert its apparent significance or unity."

*** Leonora Carrington - Patron Saint # 8  Note: The post linked to here has been updated with videos for both Carrington and Patron Saint #7, Remedios Varo.

Here are individual links for examples of the following artist's works: Kay Sage, Leonora Carrington, Dorothea Tanning, and Gerrie Gutmann.

For other listings of Surrealist women, try here, and here.