Paintings; Women Artists; Jocelyn Taylor; Shamanism
摘要
Rose Marie Prins' Project Demonstrating Excellence is a body of mixed media paintings entitled "Bound Crosses and Boundary Crossings." These are abstractions of a cross form in various configurations on richly textured, generally darkly monochromatic grounds. Prins' involvement is with the tactile, sensuous aspects of materials that are often nontraditional: the source of inspiration will be a found object or a chemical reaction that occurs when compounds are mixed, or the changes that occur over time as a canvas weathers, literally exposed to the elements. In the most successful pieces of this series matter and spirit are united.
The Contextual Essay is entitled "Crossing Boundaries, A Woman's Art: Artists and Visionaries Who Challenge Dichotomies." Based on an interview with Jocelyn Taylor, a video/performance artist, feminist/activist, and practicing Buddhist, a comparison is drawn between the artist, the Bodhisattva in the Buddhist Tantric tradition, and the shaman. The study explores the connections between the shaman, as ecstatic healer; the Bodhisattva, as one concerned with the alleviation of suffering; and some modern and contemporary women artists, whose work brings a healing vision to schisms between people of different races; mind, body and spirit; and nature and humanity. These are women who persevere against the odds including patriarchal cultures' world wide attempts at suppression, perversion and cooption--some of which are outlined in the essay. Included is a description of Prins' own work and a discussion of the similarities among the life experiences and philosophical concepts that shape it and those that influence the work of Jocelyn Taylor. In conclusion, the importance of both art and spirituality is stressed: art and spirituality enable human beings to defy the dominant binary paradigm and diffuse boundaries between dualities.
