Altar Building + Isis Bookwork

Hello Dearies!
School is officially over and the day is my oyster! While I sip my spicy tea and wait for this thunderstorm to start, I'll give you the scoop on what's been stewing in the HerSpeak studio since I've been away...

***A few days ago I felt the itch. You know--the itch to shuffle all your belongings, to make piles and generally mouse about. What ended up happening was this impromptu altar! I had started with a black candle that burns in my studio, which then led to a few stones settling near it...and a photograph...and then knots of string...and then another candle...and a magazine clipping...my tarot cards...and a doOdle and before I knew it, this was the end result:

It's my new favorite place in the apartment.

Aside from improvisational installation pieces, I finished my artist book, "Prayers for Isis". This petite accordian fold book was a project for my Print and Narrative Forms course, which is roughly based on a pocket prayer book or a Book of Hours. The pages consist of intaglio etchings watercolored illustrations and gold leaf on domestic etch paper. The text came from a stream of consciousness ramble I did about a year ago.

The pages read: "When they are with HER, they are queens of ostrich plumes & strings of crocodiles teeth--She Hounds wired and aware. When they are with HER, their skins are diamonds, rosy candied fly wings..."

"When I am with HER, I am stitched up swan parts--sure footed and insane. I speak in tongues of leaves, the recently deceased and lavish faun dreams--of dripping water, willow trees and the thousands of ticklish thistles."

"When I am with HER, me is I, this is WE and She is US--due cause for upper case. WE is grounds for celebration, strange festivities and acclimations in memory of dreams we never had, fires we never sparked and books whose spines we have long forgotten."

Each ovalette of text has a corresponding illustration of a maiden, mother and crone version of the same Virgin Mary/Isis/Tonantzin/Lady of Guadalupe icon.


It was interesting watching my peers handle the book during critique: very delicately, carefully turning pages, gingerly touching the gold leaf and absent mindedly rubbing the soft velvet casing ribbon as they read. Most smiled widely when they found the illustrations and recognized the woman as someone they know from paintings, church windows, or their own mothers. Whether they found Goddess in it or not was not important to me, they found Comfort. And really--aren't they the same? :)

And for tomorrow--more projects to document and post! Oooh it feels good to be back in the blogosphere! I'm going to brew a second cup and flit about to all of your blog homes to see what sort of mischeif you've been making! What have you been up to, my pretties? What sort of tinkering have you been doing in your studios, kitchens, classrooms and journals?

Until next time,

Much Joy and Merry Making, Friends!