My experience of being in the lock-up ward (1991-1995) taught me much about how I might support others in celebrating strengths which often involves learning to turn wounds to wisdom. I’ll share the story of how I came to be in lock-down…an amazing time… in a future post.
It was during those years that I dropped down deeper and came to know my Inner Teacher archetype….She and I have been deepening our relationship ever since.
Retablo, Karin Bartimole, 1997
“I hope you will go out and let stories happen to you, and that you will work them, water them with your blood and tears and your laugher till they bloom, till you yourself burst into bloom. Then you will see what medicines they make, and where and when to apply them. That is the work. The only work.”
Clarissa Pinkola Estes
On the first Thursday of each month I’ll post a brief review of one of my teaching methods from some of my favorite workshops and studios.
This month:
CONTEMPORARY RETABLO PAINTING
I design teaching studios as a way of sharing what sets my hair on fire. Over the years my community-outreach studios have grown to be one of my favorite parts of the Art/Life.
Currently we gather in small live groups as well as in my on-line e-Studios: ‘Tools for Change’, ‘Ages & Stages’, ‘Free to Be Effective’ and ‘Emerge & See’. These are intimate circles of curious connection to ‘what next, what now, what matters’. It’s endlessly inspiring and moving to experience the depth of connection that takes place when we create together… whether in the same room or half way round the world from one another in the virtual studio.
A Recent Gathering, Drozda, 2015
Retablo appeals to me for many reasons not the least of which is the charm of creating a pictorial story…a representation to bring well-being and good wishes to a difficult situation. Fall off that horse and have someone paint you getting back on, leaping over fences. Suffer a setback and hire an artist to depict your breakthrough…these would be the traditional roots of Retablo…a Mexican folk art style that I felt ripe and ready for bringing into a contemporary setting.
A Retablo painting contains the pictorial ‘power image’. and includes a story. The story may be told through the picture on its own and/or with an accompanying narrative text. Here is a wordless Retablo that we’re all familiar with:
Mexican oil paint on tin retablo of ‘Our Lady of Guadalupe’ 19thc.El Paso Museum of Art
Here is the Virgin of Guadalupe again… this time incorporated into a traditional Retablo with story:
In traditional Retablo the core concept depicts a personal challenge …often interpreted as needing a miracle to resolve. Think of falling into an extended illness and then eventually being able to get up again. A Retablo painting may explore the unwanted circumstance as well as what is desired in its stead.
In the lock up ward I fell into a well of deep curiosity. I wondered about individual and collective tales…how do we end up where we are? What makes or breaks us? How do we put ourselves into lock-down?
discovery brings empowerment
I had over twenty rooms to wander, plus a padded cell…as needed. I was in a space meant to contain women. Out of sight and out of mind. While in the lock-up ward I made art and I made discoveries.
Rio Chama Mama, Drozda, Acrylic/wood, 1996
What’s Up With You?
Explore a challenging experience in your life. See how moving through it taught you about your own strength and ability to gain insight from the event. That experience is going to hold much more meaning once you ferret out the visual language and ‘design’. Thinking and remembering are fine yet power rises when we have the courage to express rather than depress what ails us.
In Buddhist practice we’re given encouragement to face the demon…rather than ignore or pretend it doesn’t exist.
Exploring Personal Power, Keri, Student Work, 2011
Retablos are made of a mix of materials. Traditionally these would include found pieces of wood, cardboard, canvas or tin as a substrate plus any sort of pigments and mark-making tools. For a contemporary narrative we might use wood boards that serve as ‘canvas’, gesso, sandpaper, acrylic paint, matte medium, permanent marking pens, found objects and leather strips for hanging the piece so that it has an earthy and handmade quality.
Exploring Family, Gwen, Student Work, 2009
Creation of a Retablo invites in added and lasting importance as it documents personal understanding of the key life experience.
Gertrude Stein Homage, Carolyn LLoyd Swain, 1996
I enjoyed reading about the Retablo art. Its new to me. I’ll ponder this and we’ll see what comes together. Thank you for your many sharings.
Thanks Sarah…and welcome home from your journeying…glad you’ve joined the trail ride here…we’ll meander on and see what comes round the bend.I hope that you’ll let Retablo happen for you…very cool process.
Thank you for your words, D. They move me, inspire me and balance me on so many levels.
~Yay…there you are Tree~
Your comment is a gift at the beginning of a most ‘Giddy-yup!!’ kinda day…trail riding can be a bit rough and tumble sometimes…I maintain that being here together provides support when we feel like we might slip off the back of the horse.
Thanks D, now I have a new name for what I make because they are most certainly retablos too. And, of course, since I spend half my hours in the Spanish-speaking world, it seems right and fitting 🙂
I look forward with bated breath to descover why you were in that ward…
Btw that’s the second quote from Clarissa Pinkola Estés that I’ve been presented with this week. Methinks the universe is telling me it’s time for some wild running with the wolves 😉
Thanks so excellent that you recognize your work as being of the Retablo genre WC! Trail riding offers the opportunity to see deeper ways of joining together…how magnificent to be on a ride for creating and sharing images and work of all kinds that supports a miraculous healing view.
Clarissa Pinkola Estés is coming to call…’Running with the Wolves’ continues to be a source of inspiration and a reminder of the power of being a member of the Scar Clan.
I remember those ‘lock down/up’ years, Donna. I remember learning to write with my opposite hand, and the view from those windows, but I also remember ‘those rooms’ with their bars on the windows and their desolation.
Much has happened in the years that followed: Spending precious time (classes) in that building (with you and the others that gathered) was a defining moment for me. I was so afraid to move forward in those years, but, break-out, I did. And while I still ‘fear’ (the unknown, the need to do things perfectly, etc., and the silly voices in my head that tell me I will fail, I’m not good enough), I push out and forward to explore. Thank you for that opportunity so many years ago!
Oh Thanks so much!! for being here Sandi…
Breakdowns and breakthroughs…falling down and getting back up…wouldn’t it be an amazing world if we were educated to know that this is a rhythm that is natural to this journey and that when I fall you can help me up and when you fall I can provide support.
I am so thrilled that you posted here…there won’t be many who shared the lock-up ward with me who are still around to comment…well they may be around out there somewhere…they will not be reading this post. Extraordinary place and exceptional time.
Please take some time (in the future) to share those rooms and that building with all of us here. What a time that was… the year before and broke out to get a ‘little’ college. Something I always wanted, but could never afford, and to end up with a degree on top of it. See Donna, a beginning and continuation of a journey I’ve never let go. Always searching, trying, learning. Thanks!
Thank you for the prompt Sandi. I will share more about Fairhill. I didn’t mean to be evasive about the lock-up ward…I will weave the story into upcoming posts…it was before digital cameras of course and I didn’t photograph the space much at all…however I won’t let that keep me from sharing more about all that being there brought to us and our creativity.
Beautiful post. 22 rooms and one of them a padded cell…go figure! Life is such a hoot, Just thinking how it can be so hard to “get out of my way” when the fire is burning, but how having a more curious and creative eye (not taking things so personally) is oh so very helpful. Like, if I could just go to the padded cell place in the midst of the fire…kind of like “the Lady” or any of the teleporting, non-local wise ones (present to the fire, but in a whole other place)…what would it be like to be quiet in the storm? That would be a creative miracle for me. That could generate some real art in my life. I should be care-full of what I am asking for…not wishing for a four alarm fire…wishing for simply the ability to take what shows up in life and be peaceful with it, channel it creatively…trusting…putting the big girl chaps on for the trail ride and holding on when the horse starts bucking. Got to find those chaps.
hmmmmm…first thing that jumps into my little brain is Google ‘Chaps R Us’…there’s bound to be something interesting over in that camp 😉
OR you could make this “wishing for simply the ability to take what shows up in life and be peaceful with it, channel it creatively…trusting” a real request…like no kidding, seriously…I mean it…and then see what shows up. Either way it’s all good…after all look what you’re up to day after day…I’d say you wear leather pants…never mind the chaps.
Iona, You have the ability to reach me, deep inside, just when I need to hear your words and your heart. I am most grateful!!
Thank you Karen…having sat in our circles…and watched the unfolding… you have the direct line in 😉
Glad that you are on the trail ride!