Category Archives: Art

Revisioning the Venus: San Miguel de Allende to Austria

17 Thursday Dec 2020

Posted by in Art, public sculpture, sculpture

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It must have been those red boots I bought my first day in Paris. Or the synchronicity of running into Mary’s old friends in a West Bank Cafe. Or the wonderful exhibition, Crossing Borders, in Ghent, Belgium I was in where we attended the opening and met new artist friends. Or more than likely, my one simple question, “Are there any Neolithic goddess sites in Austria?” that led to my visiting the infamous Venus of Willendorf at the Natural History Museum – inspiration for the Sculpture to come…

I believe in synchronicity, or “meaningful coincidences,” and that being open to possibilities is key. You have to say yes to the Universe to receive gifts that come “out of the blue.” Last year’s trip to Europe was full of such magic; good luck certainly came my way and all seemed part of a divine plan.

Read my article for Lokkal Magazine, to learn the how’s and why’s behind my new public sculpture, “Throne for a Goddess” at Kunstpark St. Ruprecht/Raab, Austria. https://www.lokkal.com/sma/magazine/2020/december/venus.php

Throne for a Goddess, Sculptural seating installed in September 2020.

The Sacred Feminine Trilogy. Watch as a Large Charcoal Drawing develops in the Studio.

19 Thursday Nov 2020

Posted by in Art, Artist studios, Sacred Feminine in ARt, Spiritual symbols, Uncategorized

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Sometimes you create a piece of art because of the materials you have available to you. This is especially true during the Covid-19 lock down. I had this beautiful large sheet of amate paper, a hand-made paper made in a village near Puebla, Mexico, rolled up in a corner and nearly forgotten. I bought the paper for the size, 45″ x 97″ – finding paper that size isn’t easy – so you grab it when you can. But the sheer beauty of it also attracted me. I bought a couple of sheets from the maker who was traveling through Mazatlan a number of years ago.

The Beginning

In June, I unfurled and tacked the huge paper up on my sheetrock wall in my studio (in San Miguel de Allende) not knowing what I was going to do – without a plan. That’s my normal modus operandi: show up at the page and see what happens. I’d thought I might cut it into 3 pieces after I got started. And since I’ve been working figuratively, I began in the center – sketching in a rough figure with charcoal.

Three Figures emerge

I love working with charcoal, although it is very messy. It’s a very sensual medium, one you have to get your hands into. A push/pull of black and white, adding and subtracting, making marks and erasing. Smearing, rubbing, softening with fingers, rags, and erasures. As the figures took form, the symbols began to emerge from the page as well – the moon, the circle, the bird, wings, the spiral, the ouroboros (snake), and flowers.

The final piece!

I began to see the power in the full size paper – no way was I going to cut it into three pieces! It won’t be easy to frame or exhibit, but art is not practical and we don’t make practical choices in the studio.

As the figures emerged, a story developed and The Sacred Feminine Trilogy came to life. On the left is ‘Strength’ – a young woman turns towards center one hand in a fist, in defiance – “a don’t mess with me stance”. A bird sits on her shoulder, another hovers nearby, possibly her Spirit Guides. In the center is ‘Spirit’ – one hand upturned to receive, the other to give back, a sacred mudra or hand gesture. She stands in front of the Full Moon, a sacred feminine symbol if there ever was one, her wings fully in place – suggesting she is a spiritual entity. The Ouroboros, the snake eating its tail, encircles the moon, an ancient symbol for renewal and the cycle of life. On the right is ‘Abundance’ – the Mother, pregnant and abundant with life. She holds white Cala lilies in front of her stomach – a symbol for fertility – and looks towards ‘Spirit‘ for guidance.

The viewer’s interpretation is as valid as the artist’s. What do you read into the Trilogy? Enjoy!

For your Bucket List after the Pandemic Covid-19 breaks.

10 Friday Apr 2020

Posted by in Art, Art Vacations, Covid 19 Pandemic, monotype, Monotype Print Workshops, printmaking studio

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We still need to dream! When all this is over, and this too shall pass, there just may be a new normal. Will we be able to travel as freely as before? For that, we shall see. But if you do get to travel, and you want to combine your journey to a beautiful and historic location with art and creativity, here is what I can offer, Monoprint Workshops in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, an Unesco World Heritage site. Dream on! Add it to your Bucket List.

Monoprint Workshops in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico with Glen Rogers

http://www.glenrogersart.com

Tranquility – Find your Peace

01 Wednesday Apr 2020

Posted by in Art, Artist studios, Covid 19 Pandemic, inspiration, monotype

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Imagine yourself in this landscape – enjoying the night time stillness at water’s edge, full moon shining. Breathe in and experience your inner peace.

“Bird with Moon”, Monoprint, 7″ x 5″

During these strange times, it’s important to stay centered and not give in to FEAR. Fear constricts and immobilizes. Yes, follow the protocols set out for us during our Covid-19 enforced home-stay. But after that, find your peace. Come up with your stay-at-home schedule. Be kind to yourself.

Perhaps this is the time you’ve been craving. The gift of Time!

I’m a list maker (the Capricorn in me!) Make a list of the things you want to accomplish.

Keep a journal. Set out on a journey of self-discovery. Write down your thoughts and feelings each day.

Listen to inspirational podcasts while you are working. Here are a few of my favorites: Caroline Casey, The Visionary Activist; New Dimensions Radio with Justine Toms; Oprah’s Super Soul Conversations; Fresh Air with Terry Gross.

“By the Light of the Moon”, 12”x12”, Oil on panel with gold leaf
Recently created for the Audubon Society of San Miguel auction (new date to be announced)

I would love to hear your comments. How are you dealing with it all?

Wishing you well! Keep your creative juices flowing!

Life and Art in the Time of Covid-19

18 Wednesday Mar 2020

Posted by in Art, Uncategorized

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Ofcourse the title is a nod to Love in the Time of Cholera  a novel by Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez. And folks, we are living it – in the here and now – a crisis pandemic in our times. So what’s an artist to do?

I feel lucky that I just received a commission for a large painting. A 3′ x 6 1/2′ canvas. A transformative lotus – an image that I’ve used in my work many times over the years. The petals unfolding never fail to soothe me, to embrace me and to help me transcend the ordinary.

Sketch for Painting

From my book, Symbols of the Spirit: A Meditative Journey Through Art: Incorporating the lotus into my artwork is meant as a spiritual metaphor, not just the image of a beautiful flower. Using simple graphic strokes, I try to capture the hidden aura of the plant and reveal an ethereal side of nature. Jung said that the symbol (any symbol) is the psychological mechanism for transforming energy. Through this simple form, I attempt to transform a blank canvas into something mystical, giving the viewer a spiritual connection through my art.

1. So during this time of uncertainty (and mass histeria!), I will hole-up in my studio and create.

2. I’ve also decided to amp up my spiritual practice and do my yoga and meditation every day (up until now, it was 2 or 3 times a week). But I have plenty of time – so I’m going for it!

3. Pull a Tarot card each day (Also a practice I’ve been doing once a week for many years). Yesterday I pulled 2 of Discs: Change. The only constant and it is cyclic. For the purpose of re-balancing. For revealing to us that which is knowable and that which is unfamiliar. Changes in the External reality – and Internal changes that are expansive and positive.

Today I pulled The Hanged Man: The Pattern Breaker. Somethimes it’s necessary to take a distinctly different posture to get un-stuck. Time to trust the deeper aspects of who we are.

See how these nuggets of wisdom can make us contemplate and go deeper? (These abbreviated readings from Angeles Arriens’ The Tarot Handbook).

I realize this forced social distancing and self quarantine is a hardship for many. Believe me, I’m not trying to make light of the situation we are all in. But what if we thought of our forced home stay as a gift of time? How will you use your gift?

New beginnings – Appyling gesso to the canvas

Breaking Through the Boundaries of Patriarchy for CrossingBorders Exhibition

07 Wednesday Aug 2019

Posted by in Art, Sacred Feminine in ARt

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“Retablo for the Sacred Feminine”, oil on canvas with gold leaf & wood, 25.5″ x 18″

I’m honored to be participating in The CrossingBorders exhibition in Ghent, Belgium, August 31 thru September 15, a group exhibition of artists from the Global Art Project (GAP). We were invited to create an artwork that reflects a border or boundary and what it means to cross it – (political issues, globalisation, (im)migration, climate change, gender, race, culture, religious racism, terrorism, genocide, war, misogynist behavior, feelings of fear or superiority etc.)

I chose to use a retablo format and focus on how women have been marginalized, tortured, terrorized, and abused for thousands of years in the name of religion. Through time, matriarchy was erased from memory as myths were appropriated and symbols were stolen. With this votive, a prayer is lifted for women to break through patriarchal boundaries around the world and share the bounty of the planet equally and peacefully with men.

Traditionally, retablos were a votive offering in the form of a religious painting with a solemn request or a show of gratitude for a miracle. They were specifically important in Mexican folk religion in the 19th century where workshops would paint a favored scenario on a piece of tin or wood and write a request to God at the bottom of the image.

Using this retablo format as the basis for my piece, I chose to focus on Mary as she represents the divine feminine in the Catholic Church. For many indigenous cultures who were forced into the religion of the Opressor, Mary is a symbol for their goddess from ancient times.

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Traditional Mexican-style retablo

In “Retablo for the Sacred Feminine,” Mary is crowned in all her glory with a golden halo and a hint of angels wings behind her. She is truly Divine. Her breasts are bared, challenging the status quo and breaking through the shame that the Church imposed on her body. One hand open signifies her love and caring for all humanity and the other, a tight fist, represents her anger for the suppression of women and her readiness for their defense. Incorporating the spiral and the lozenge design at the top, symbols of renewal and fertility from the Neolithic goddess culture, signifies her role as life-giver.

The CrossingBorders exhibition will take place at the Sint-Amanduskapel – Campo-Santo – Visitatiestraat 2 – 9040 Sint-Amandsberg – Ghent – Belgium. It is organized for Global Art Project GAP by 10dence and curated by Ron Weijers and Carl Heyward.

Book Review for my new book, ‘Symbols of the Spirit’ by Dianne Hofner Saphiere

12 Friday Jul 2019

Posted by in ancient symbols, archetypal symbols, Art

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Book Review—Symbols of the Spirit: A Meditative Journey Through Art
By Glen Rogers, ©2019 Luna Arte Contemporáneo
Paperback, 104 pages, US$30 or 500 pesos plus US$5 shipping from glen@glenrogersart.com

You will want to savor your time with this gorgeous volume created with love and wisdom by very talented printmaker, painter and sculptor, Glen Rogers. The book is filled with Glen’s beautiful artwork expertly laid out and printed in rich colors, accompanied by short text and guided meditation.

Glen’s work has long been grounded in archetypal imagery—metaphysical symbols from the collective unconscious. As a young feminist artist, Marija Gimbutas’ insights in The Language of the Goddess spurred Glen to walk in the footsteps of early goddess cultures. Over the next several decades Glen made spiritual and artistic pilgrimages to sacred sites around the world. On these journeys and in her art and life in between, Glen discovered and nurtured an internal resonance with sacred archetypal symbols, which then became a focus of her work. When she began authoring this latest volume, she set out to write a book about two of her favorite symbols: the bird and the lotus. Once she began, however, she quickly realized there were eight key symbols that appear again and again throughout her body of work.

In Symbols of the Spirit Glen writes a two-page essay on each of these eight symbols that have imbued such meaning and beauty into her art and daily life: the bird, circle, lotus, moon, seed, spiral, vessel and vesica piscis. She covers the symbols’ historic use and meaning as well as how they came to speak to her personally. Glen includes a short meditation or experiential activity inviting the reader to connect with the energetic properties of each of the symbols: to “experience it with your heart and allow the images to become part of your visual and spiritual vocabulary.” Click on any photo to enlarge it or view a slideshow.

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The effect is one of pure joy and thoughtful contemplation. If you are looking for reading that nurtures the spirit, the heart, one’s creativity and authenticity, you will find it here. Merely touching the rich pages deepens and calms one’s breath. Keeping this book near you in your home or work space provides a quick escape from the harried world we live in.

Most Mazatlán residents have much to thank Glen for, including the First Friday Art Walks in Centro Histórico and the OMA Gallery at the airport. She owned Luna Art Gallery in Mazatlán, and currently splits her time between our city on the bay and San Miguel de Allende. Born in Mississippi, Glen holds an MFA from San Jose State University and has a long and esteemed art career. For decades she worked in public art and as a community leader. Glen has had solo exhibitions throughout the USA and Mexico plus several in Peru, and group exhibits on four continents.

Glen feels that these eight archetypal symbols offer a promise of healing and transformation, a spiritual and artistic anchor to the Sacred Feminine. She views the creation of art as meditation—a communing with a higher power. Working with ancient symbols provides a bridge to our ancestors and a heart connection to the past. Glen’s experience tells us that these symbols provide healing on a subconscious level, and that once we’ve healed ourselves we can heal the world, because archetypes allow us to go deeper inside to find new truths to the dilemmas we face individually and collectively. Do we really need reasons more powerful than these to invest our time and talent?

Glen’s record of giving back to the community and trying new things is evident in this book. Making such personal works available to everyone—artist and non-artist alike—allows us a peek into what pushes someone as amazingly talented as Glen, and in doing so inspires us to look inward as well. Meditating with Glen via these precious pages is a truly therapeutic endeavor.  Contact Glen to start enjoying your copy.

“The man who speaks with primordial images speaks with a thousand tongues.”
—Carl Jung

Visit Dianne’s blog: https://vidamaz.com about life in Mexico!

Symbols of the Spirit: A Meditative Journey Through Art

15 Friday Mar 2019

Posted by in ancient symbols, archetypal symbols, Art, Glen Rogers, Uncategorized

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I’m happy to present my recently published book, “Symbols of the Spirit: A Meditative Journey Through Art” . 

Cover of Symbols of the Spirit

Cover of Symbols of the Spirit

On the back cover: Glen takes us on a journey to explore eight iconic symbols that appear universally in early civilizations. She introduces archetypes—the bird, the circle, the lotus, the moon, the seed, the spiral, the vessel, and the vesica piscis—delving into both their meanings and their metaphors. She believes all are connected to the spiritual realm and have an undeniable link to the Sacred Feminine. Glen engages us with her unique style of art to illustrate each chapter and shares her personal stories and inspiration.

book page the seed sm

 

Excerpt from the Forward by Janet Blaser:

Through research, intuition and a deep sense of creativity and interconnectedness, the author explains with words and visual images how these symbols with their hidden messages can enrich our daily lives and anchor us firmly on our spiritual path.

Carl G. Jung in his book, Man and His Symbols, referred to certain symbols as archetypal—images that all of us can tap into through our unconscious mind, dream states and the creative process. For the last 25 years, Glen’s artwork in abstract symbolism has attempted to capture the essence of such imagery. While in her previous book, Art & Sacred Sites: Connecting with Spirit of Place, she described her pilgrimages to sacred sites around the world as inspiration for her art, in Symbols of the Spirit, she focuses on the symbol.

book page the lotus

In these pages, Glen explains her intimate, personal encounters with the energies of these symbols, and how they’ve been a bridge to a more spiritual and connected life for her. She then goes one step further to share with the reader a meditation on each of the eight symbols, so they, too, can connect with these energies. It’s a powerful formula, backed by Glen’s years of exploration and experience, and a unique opportunity to enter a perhaps previously unthought-of spiritual territory.

While one could – as I did, for so long – look at her prints and paintings merely as beautiful works of art, there’s a deeper level of connection and meaning to be found. To paraphrase Glen’s words, I urge you to experience this book “from the heart, not the head,” and allow the images and meditations to become a part of your visual and spiritual vocabulary too.

 

Designed by Margery Cantor in collaboration with the artist. 104 pages, 9″ x 9″, soft cover, full color images, printed in Mexico City, $25usd.  Add this book to your own collection or give to that special friend as a gift!    

To order, contact me at: glen@glenrogersart.com

 

 

 

 

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Fragments from the Ancient World

09 Thursday Feb 2017

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As an artist, I draw from the ancient world, collecting symbols carved into stone. I’m intrigued by the simplicity of form and the repetition of shapes such as the circle and spiral in sites around the world. By visiting sacred sites, I feel a connection with those who came before me and feel the spirit of place.

Here are some mixed media prints that I created recently using images from Uxmal, Monte Alban, and Las Labradas (Mexico). My photographs of these fragments were used to create solarplates, a non-toxic form of photo-printmaking. I then hand-wiped and printed the images on rice paper, running the plate through an etching press. The images were then used in the chine colle process – pasting down the thinner paper to a heavier print paper as I printed a monotype image at the same time. (Kind of like a collage).The monotype provides the textures and subtle tones that pull the image together.

These three prints, Ancient Fragment I, II, III, are featured in an exhibition at Baupres Gallery, Mazatlan, Mexico through the end of February.

 

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Ancient Fragment III

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Ancient Fragment II

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Ancient Fragment I

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Fragment from Uxmal

Posted by | Filed under ancient symbols, archetypal symbols, Art, monotype, Sacred Sites in Mexico, Uncategorized

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Ancient Openings/Aperturas Ancestrales

07 Wednesday Dec 2016

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I went to Lima, Peru in October, where I had a solo exhibition thru November 27 as part of the Bienal Internacional de Grabado (International Biennal of Printmaking) sponsored by ICPNA ( Instituto Cultural Peruano Norteamericano). There were over 40 exhibitions as part of the Biennal over a 2 month period and represented artists from Belgium, Brazil, Chile, Spain, the U.S., Finland, France, Italy, Mexico and Peru.

In this exhibition at Galeria ICPNA San Miguel, I had the opportunity to exhibit early large-scale prints along with recent works.  I created most of these prints at KALA Institute in Berkeley, California in the early 1990’s, they represent the beginning of my exploration into symbolism as my primary artistic expression. My work continues along this line, and it was gratifying to see how seamlessly the work flowed.

All of the monotype prints draw from a universal visual language of primal forms created by early cultures and inspired by nature.  The circle speaks of unity, oneness, wholeness, the sun and the moon; the spiral reflects renewal, regeneration, evolution and growth; the oval or ‘vesical piscis’ is a symbol from sacred geometry that implies the womb, the seed, birth, and the beginning of life.  My intent over the last 20 years has been to create work that reflects the essence of these forms that can touch us on an intuitive level.

I visit sacred sites shrouded in mystery and imbued with the spirit of the ancients for inspiration. With each pilgrimage, I am drawn to the artifacts left behind by these early societies – sculptural details carved in stone, glyphs painted on cave walls, and designs found on pottery shards.  In each location, repetition is found in the form of archetypal symbols such as the circle and the spiral – universal symbols that according to Carl Jung evoke a deep and unconscious response.  Early on, I was drawn to Paleolithic and Neolithic sites where images of Mother Earth, the Divine Feminine, were revered.  (Among them: Newgrange in Ireland, The Temple of Knossos in Crete, and the caves in the south of France.)  My more recent visits to Machu Picchu, the Nazca Lines, and Sillustani in Peru also reveal a deep reverence for nature, Spirit and the cycles of life. For me, each site represents a mystical opening, a passage to something greater than ourselves, beyond the human experience.

In the studio, bold symbols emerge from the inked plate in a somewhat stream-of-conscious manner, my head and heart filled with new material.  The monotype allows me a spontaneous approach and results in a one-of-a kind image. Scratching the plate with a drypoint tool, I create a textural surface suggesting primeval walls worn down by time.  A mystical and meditative quality references the ritual of sacred space while the curvilinear forms refer to the Divine Feminine.  Symbols create openings that can connect us to the past and to the spiritual realm. As I work the surface of the plate and access these ancient forms and markings, I feel an affinity with those who have come before me.

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