"Gate At The Garden of the Gods" (4PAM_16)

My parents live in Thailand, which means once every couple of years I get to go visit, and they're always gracious enough to drive me all over the countryside to ogle all the temples, markets, and sites. Last year my in-laws guided us up north to a beautiful sculpture garden call "The Garden of the Gods." Sculpture garden is a bit of an understatement as many of the sculptures were the size of buildings. I know I'm a lucky duck, a place like this could inspire a thousand pieces, yet I remained a bit oblivious to the potential there.

 A few month ago I joined a Facebook page hosted by Catherine Witherell called Texture Tuesdays. EveryTuesday, people will post photos based on a theme Catherine so cleverly devises. The theme that week was doorways, and I posted a gate that lead to the central shrine at "The Garden of the Gods." Fortunately for me, it caught Gorden Uyehara's attention, and he quite innocently stated I should make a cuff based on that design. As they say, if it was a snake, it would have bit me. Thank goodness for other artists, this piece wouldn't have come into being without them.

Just managing to get it to sinter was an exciting feat, but having it on the cover of Metal Clay Artist Magazine for their third anniversary issue is beyond any expectation I would have for it. So here it is, it took about two month to complete and lots of courage to fire. It's the process behind the piece through stills and video. If you're curious about the specific skills demonstrated, check out my previous blog postings about all those techniques. And another big THANKS to Catherine and Gordon no man is an island, much credit goes to you and the staff at MCAM.

The Phoenix Paradigm.

The phoenix is a classic representation of life, death, and rebirth in a number of mythologies spanning the globe. This mystical bird, that rises from the ashes of it’s previously burnt form, speaks to more than just primitive fantasy. I believe many of these kinds of symbolic stories hold within them the truth of the many dimensions of the the human experience, being more allegorical than literal. 

To me, the phoenix tells the the story of transformation. In order for the new to be born, first room must be made, and all the experiences leading up to that dissolution feeds the process of renewal. For example, the children we were must be left behind to become the adults we are meant to be. The innocence of childhood is traded for the freedom and responsibility of adulthood. It’s not that one is better than the other, it’s simply the natural progression of form. With the phoenix, there is no fear of that transition, because the surety of renewal is written within the very flames of transformation. This piece was designed to express this system of transformation but in the context of how this applies to the discovery of one’s true self. 

Upon first view, fire encompasses this entire necklace. The focal is flames wrapped around a charred chunk of wood. The wood, although gnarled in texture, has the look of a once carefully carved and refined form. I think we often perfect our personalities in the same way. There’s this wild, unruly, instinct within us, that we smooth, and carve away at it to create our social personality. This construct is often mistaken for being our true self. I don’t believe our true nature is either simply an animal instinct or this refined personality, but in order to discover our true nature, we must offer up the illusion that we are these things to the fire of clear consciousness

The clarity of consciousness is not a complicated thing. It is a natural form, it is simply the act of observation. In the same way that fire consumes, so does this clarity. For example, when we feel angry, we say “I am angry.” If you are able to step back and simply observe this feeling, you begin to realize that this fury, can be boiled down to physiological changes. Perhaps your heart races, your breathing become more shallow, you feel a surge of energy as your endorphins are released. You can begin to see that you are not this feeling, you are just experiencing this feeling, you are feeling angry. So if this is how you are feeling, who is it that is observing this? Who is it that is “feeling”? Where is this “who” located? Where does this observer begin or end?

This process is the beginning sparks of the fire of consciousness. It’s not a process that happens just once, and is finished. It is a process that we renew each and everyday, in each and every moment. As we burn away the false forms that we identify as our “self” that clarity arises. The Phoenix is that clarity, it is just awareness passing through one form to another form, arising and falling, without fear, without judgment. Even as it takes it’s first breath and emerges from the ashes, it begins it’s journey once again toward the fire. In embracing this paradigm I believe we begin to discover what lies beyond language, beyond thought, beyond emotion. We begin to discover that wellspring of simply “being.” This simply “being” is represented by the natural form of the fire agate cabochon. 

Once again I wanted a setting that would allow the stone to be removed, because this simply “being” goes beyond this paradigm of existence. It is the fluent energy that animates our experiences, the space in between each and every atom that fills the entire universe. It can be described but never defined, it is beyond all allegories, beyond the constraints of language, whether symbolic, written, or spoken. It simply is.

Anam Cara: The journey inward as told through image and function

Generally I believe everybody is at least three people, the person the world sees, the person our loved ones see, and our true self. Sometimes  I think we tend to close ourselves off from the outside world, work very hard to decorate our outer selves, and hope that that's all people will see us for and yet hate it when they do. To me it's the deepest conflict of self, this desire to have the world embrace who we truly are, yet afraid of the vulnerabilty this position puts us in. The thistles, griffons, hounds, and interlace knots are worked on the outside of the vessel. Griffons and hounds are mythologically tied to protection and gaurdianship, thistles are thorny hardiness surrounding a beautiful bloom. All of this is meant to communicate the complexity of the armour we build around our true self. On the top of the vessel is my "Luck and Love" knot, that's been pierced to allow light to shine through because often it seems it is only with a little luck that we allow that light of love to be cast through our defenses..

.The doors open and we can begin to see the beauty of the stone that lies within. We make ourselves a little more vulnerable to the world, but still remain relatively comfortable within our protective shell. You can see the "Luck and Love" knot casting itself upon the stone, I like to think this is akin to the idea that the love we feel from the outside is actually just a reflection of the love that resides within us, merely a shadow dance pointing to the true source. 

The pendant itself is us when we love one another. We always keep a little hidden, but for the most part leave ourselves exposed. The clasp on the stone's cradle is worked with my "Two Hearts Joined" knot, when we surrender oursleves completely to another, the line between "I" and the other blurs, I believe this is the door to the soul, what can be called our Buddha nature, or that space before a thought arrises.

The full beauty of the stone is only revealed when all of the exterior housing is abandoned. Although man has shaped it, it existed before our conception of it... natural, raw, and filled with the light that sparks every atom in the universe, beyond our comprehension but imbued in every aspect of us. Anam Cara means spiritual friend. A true spiritual friend will guide us past all the beauty and distraction of our many layers to the truth that resides within.