The Closing Event November 7th

Jennie Chien, Photo by Lisa Levart 2010

We had a well-attended closing. Artist Talks by Ned Harris, Pat Hickman, and Daniel Mack were illuminating, really outstanding. Music by Marianne Osiel was beautiful. Delicious baked autumn sweets and mulled cider by Bill kept us warm and content.

And we topped it off by burning the Book of Logic!

Marianne Osiel

Burning the Book of Logic

Artists and Altars

As the Opening nears, I've had the opportunity to collect a few more thoughts on just what these ALTARS are all about.

First, I believe we all are making altars all the time. Just look at our desks, dressers, window sills, car dashboards...

Altars are places where something special can happen; where there is a concentration of attention, care that allows and stimulates something sacred and intuitive to happen. Altars are places to learn and tell stories about deep living.
• They are sacred, energized, special places for prayer, expression, meditation, retreat
• They are carefully chosen or assembled to allow for the changing of objects and materials which can take on sacred guiding capacities.
• They are spiritual work areas, Laboratories , literally: places to work, express and pray—to seek the intercession of spirit in human affairs
• They are portals between the worlds of Matter and Spirit.

What to do with an Altar?
• Express, Manifest, “Matter” personal and group concerns
• Seek Blessings for self, others
• Give Expression to the missing, deferred, rejected, overlooked
• Honor the Departed
• Honor Truths:
o Impermanence (decay, change, rebirth)
o Suffering (practicing to hold opposites as one)
o Egolessness (practicing living in the present. Using gerunds)
• Express Appreciation for nature, change, living, beauty
• Sacrifice as a reminder of our oneness with everything

Ways to Compose, Re-Compose altars
USE the Mother-Father Model (MATER-ial PATER-n)
Select Materials which have meaning and put them in some Pattern on the Altar.
Do this many times

USE the Haiku Model:
o Use something Seasonal-Sensory-contrast/compare
o Express a Universal sentiment-allusion to Nature
o Be brief-technical-expressive subtle-indirect- yet with piercing clarity

What to put on an Altar start with the Elements:
• Water -- the life force: a tabletop fountain, sea shells, a chalice, bowl of purified water, fresh flowers or flower petals
• Air: feathers, wind chimes, reeds, incense, pictures of birds, fragrant herbs, music, leaves
• Fire: candles, fiery gemstones (onyx, ruby), Images of the sun (male) or small dragon figures, lights, ashes, charcoal
• Earth: honor the element of earth, houseplants, potted herbs, pentacles, stones, obsidian, red jasper, crystals, glass, mirrors, nests, salt for purification
• Spirit/Aether: photographs, toys, trinkets, religious symbols, important personal objects

What is Liminal?

Liminal is such a full word. It perfectly describes what an altar does -- it acts as a threshold between one reality and another.

What really is here and now and what really is there and then?


According to Wikipedia:
Liminality (from the Latin word līmen, meaning "a threshold") is a psychological, neurological, or metaphysical subjective, conscious state of being on the "threshold" of or between two different existential planes . . .

People, places, or things may not complete a transition, or a transition between two states may not be fully possible. Those who remain in a state between two other states may become permanently liminal . . .

My Father's Hat

Ned Harris writes:

"A simple mundane object like my Father's Hat that I photographed
after he died brings him back to life. 

"My hat's off to a great guy."

Altars, Altars Everywhere?

Just a question or three:
Aren't we always tending many altars? remembering, preparing, honoring?
Are Quik-Cheks and Dollar Stores some of the places we go to get our altar items.. to place on our dining tables (altars) window sills, in the refrigerator?

Or am I just hopelessly diluting the concept of ALTAR?

Daniel Mack

How to Bury Your Father by Larraine Herring

As the Altared Spirits show develops, the theme of dead fathers seems to be important. here are the first few lines of a poem by my friend Larraine Herring on that very event:

How to Bury Your Father

First, make sure your father is dead.
It’s important to note that although he may no longer be breathing,
he may still be alive for you.
If he is alive for you, then no amount of digging, or
flower planting
or epitaph writing
will do the trick.

Second, ask yourself if you indeed are ready
for your father to be dead.
You may have noticed that people die
in the most unexpected times --
when you are a child, or a young adult, or a new parent;
in the most unexpected ways –
crossing the street after a puppy, falling asleep with too much gin, or
the simple slice of an attack of heart.
If you are not ready for your father to be dead,
then no amount of praying, or
crying,
or counseling
will do.

more at http://laraineherring.blogspot.com/2008/06/how-to-bury-your-father.html

Artists and Altars

Altars have a extra meaning for me. My workbench is an altar; my desk is an altar. The shelf above my desk is an altar.

There are many more. And yes, they are about the Dead, but they are mostly about weaving Memory and Longing into the present. Much of my artworks are altars. Oh, they just look like chairs, tables, shelves and carvings, but really they function as doorways to and from Elsewhere, to the thin places of imagination and memory. And like all doorways, things can pass both ways. 

I put them out there a fragile hopeful declarations of a brief existence and then I wait and learn from my objects and the people who use them. At a funeral, as we grieve the dead, aren’t the tears also for our own mortality, so bluntly confronting us?

Budda is quoted as saying:  
Things are not as they seem, nor are they otherwise. 
Altars are the places where this exquisite ambiguity takes place: 
Things are dead, and alive.

Daniel Mack

The Dead Fathers Show

The original show idea centered around Dead Fathers.

This year is the 20th anniversary of my father's passing from pancreatic cancer. I miss him very much. I wanted to recognize this anniversary in some profound way. I already printed out a six-foot long portrait of my father on silk organza. The organza will be cut into vertical strips to move with the wind, reflecting how memory forms, changes, and reforms.

My friend and fellow ceramic artist, John Badik, lost his father when he was only seven. Marlene Krum Sanders, another friend and ceramist, also has a dead father. He appears thematically in her sculptures as "The Man in the Hat." So I thought we three could do a show on memory and loss.

So that is how the idea for the show started. As discussions progressed with Bill Walsh, co-owner of the Outside in Piermont, the show grew organically beyond us three building altars to our dead fathers. The central themes of mortality and memory are powerful emotional triggers. Ceremonies and rituals for the dead are part of every culture and are a vital part of human psychology and spirituality. Four more highly accomplished artists were invited to participate, bringing our number to seven. Their work also deals with life, death, transformation, and remembrance.

When someone close to us dies, we long to keep contact. We create personal altars, write letters, burn offerings, talk to them, light candles on anniversaries. We may feel respect, love, grief, anger or pain. In whatever way we remember, by that act, they become, once again, an important part of our lives.

The Art of Remembering

ALTARED SPIRITS is an art exhibit in which seven Hudson Valley artists explore the liminal space between life and death. The artists present their interpretations of the different ways to communicate with and honor those who have passed away.

The show runs from Sunday September 19 to Sunday November 7, 2010 at the Outside In Piermont, a gallery featuring Hudson River artists. The gallery is located at 249 Ferdon Avenue in Piermont. NY. Open Thursdays through Sundays 11AM to 6PM. 
Website:  http://www.outsideinpiermont.webs.com


The show period encompasses the the start of the Chinese Autumn Moon Festival to the end of the Mexican Day of the Dead celebration. This time of the year, which is after harvest and before the start of winter, is when many cultures perceive the membrane between the living and dead to be the most permeable. There are many rituals, festivals and ceremonies to bridge the barrier and celebrate the cycle of life and death.

There will be a mid-show Artist Talk on Remembering Dead Fathers on Sunday October 17th. For the closing, there will be an Artist Talk on Transformations on Sunday, November 7th. Each event will feature a burning ceremony for public participation.

Why burnings? In many cultures, flame and the lighting of candles and incense are used to represent the transformation of the material to the spiritual. Group participation brings energy and adds layers of meaning to ceremonies. On the event days of the two Artist Talks, people may also write a message to a departed one on a piece of bark supplied by the gallery or burn a letter or an offering of Chinese Hell Money in the gallery’s wood stove.

At the show closing day at 4 PM, a large origami boat, filled with  notes and offerings contributed by the public during the run of the show will be launched towards the Hudson River.

The artwork varies from sculptural altars to photographic constructions. The artists are inspired by the religious and animistic references from Asian, African, Native American, Latin American, European and Jewish cultures.

The Seven Artists and featured pieces are:

Jennie Chien, Nyack (curator, sculptor), is building a Buddhist-inspired altar. She received the Rockland County Executive Award for Visual Artist in 2009. She has won over 25 awards for design and art and has an MBA from Stanford Business School.

John Badik, Haverstraw (sculptor), is constructing an outdoor stone cairn, a cement chiminea, and a ceramic tree table for this show. John is a native to Rockland and has been making ceramic art for over 25 years.

Marlene Krum-Sanders, Piermont (sculptor), creates gorgeously illustrative multi-media sculptures. Marlene is a professional illustrator and self-taught ceramicist.

Patricia Hickman, Haverstraw (sculptor), whose signature material is translucent animal gut, shows an encased circle of gekko mummies, reminding us of the beauty and ephemeral nature of life and time. Pat has exhibited internationally and received many awards and distinctions. She is a Professor Emeritus of Art at the University of Hawai’i and from 1990-2006 was Chair of the Fiber Program.

Ned Harris, New City (photographer, graphic artist), shows a grouping of three-dimensional photographic interpretations of Mexico’s Day of the Dead folk art, along with the actual pieces. Ned is a well-known figure in Rockland. He is an artist, curator, graphic designer, and photographer.

Patrice Gallwey Grant, Nyack (sculptor) constructs story tableaux in response to the energy she feels from natural and found materials. Patrice has been making art all her life.

Daniel Mack, Warwick (object maker, author, teacher) explores the forms, textures and deformities of the trees to re-present and re-member them. Daniel will be presenting a large group of imaginal artifacts he names Anima, which are made from water-worn bark, carved to reveal human-like features. His work is in many museums' permanent collections.

Future posts will cover the cultural influences of the artists and their individual works.