‘The Dharma Queens’
The Dharma Queens are five female Icons. Each figure represents a psychological trait that limits our ability to be fully integrated and self-aware. Each Queen has transcended the limitation she embodies and is haloed in the global tradition of an enlightened person.
This series arose out of the convergence of several streams of investigation, culminating in a representation of the integration of trauma with the holistic-self, as the means to healing.
The One-Eyed Queen | Papers | 45" x 35"
The elaborate designs of vintage wallpapers inspired thoughts about the clothing of aristocracy, the theatre of status, the power of costume and mask that allows the self to be self-revealing. Clothing as a mask for the body is a conduit to a deeper immersion into the embodiment of a role, an identity absorbed into a social meaning.
Why do we submit to hierarchies, why do we long to gaze upon the Queen, King, Pope, a Saint, a holy one – and who is this human icon? I imagined the intense personal limitations of those roles, the daunting psychological and social restrictions - and I wondered about the experience of the deep self under every mask - where does empowerment and agency truly reside?
The Deaf Queen | Papers | 45" x 35"
At the same time, I stumbled upon the ancient practice of Siberian Shamanism. As I read about these northern cultures I wondered about the phenomenon of ‘altered states of consciousness’ and the relationship to self-awareness, creativity, and healing. What do Saints, Shamans and Seekers experience in trance and ecstasy?
The Mute Queen | Papers | 45" x 35"
Elaborately costumed and masked, the Shaman performs an hours-long ceremony of hypnotic drumming, chanting and frenzied dance to induce a condition necessary to enter an altered state. Moving through levels of consciousness, they interact with the divine and the demonic, and with lesser entities that sometimes are helpers, sometimes tormentors.
The Weeping Queen | Papers | 45" x 35"
As the intermediaries between seen and unseen worlds, Shamans experienced a broader consciousness, fulfilling their society’s important role as psychological and spiritual healers.
The Somnambulant Queen| Papers | 45" x 35"
Is this primal human contact the source of all our myths and the foundation of our belief systems?
What relationship does symbol and ornamentation have in expressing what lies at the center of our conception and experience of a spiritual higher power - and how do we access our own center?
These are the questions that continue to linger, as I explore image-making in the complex world I live in.