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Zagreb, Croatia
$19.50
Title
Red River
Artist
Sora Neva
Medium
Painting - Oil On Canvas
Description
I dedicate this summer 2013 piece to Carolyn Sophi Weltman, a wild woman and uncompromising artist I have met here on FAA!
***
The ancestral menstruant who crouched in a tree or on the ground in a bower of boughs, hiding from predatory teeth, was connected to darkness because her period was so often entrained with the dark of the moon. Darkness, death, fear, silence --- all remain connected in many cultures. The menstruant's many taboos not to see light also connected her to light, into which she emerged in triumph at the end of her period. Her blood was analogous as well to water, so that all water was comprehended in terms of menstrual flow, as we know from the myth of Rainbow Snake, which equates the collective sisterly vaginal snake to various waters in the sky and on the ground. The menstruant's blood flow must not mingle with the earth's "blood" flow lest Chaos, loss of consciousness in the form of a flood, annihilate human life. Her world-forming "waters" had to be separated from nature's "waters."
This separation of various liquids created them as distinct natural forms with the characteristics of the body --- bodies of water. Streams were understood as having a single source, like menstrual blood flowing from the vulva spring. Springs, pools, and mountain lakes were endowed with sacred character, dread, and taboo. To tribal people in what is now Oregon, Crater Lake was considered the most sacred spot, the center of the earth, and none but a select few were ever allowed to look upon it. (Even in modern times, Crater Lake retains a treacherous reputation.) In England, wells and springs still bear pagan female names such as "Maiden's Well" or "Bride's Spring."
Menstrual seclusion rite enacted the creation of the world and its elements, forming them as conscious ideas before there was language or sense of narrative enough to make them into a story; the rites themselves constituted the creation story. The menstruant was tabooed from seeing light, and then her emergence from dark seclusion was directly into the light, at dawn, thus bringing light into focus. She was separated from water, and her blood flow was believed to influence the flow of bodies of water. Her blood flow was the original comprehension of water, of water as a substance, of water as a moving force capable of causing chaos or death. Our simian ancestress began to perceive water as a mental, rather than an instinctual or strictly physical, reference. The animal perceives water primarily by smell, and though smell remained a part of the mythology of menstruation and water---in the Australian myth, the Rainbow Snake smells blood and causes a flood---gradually the sense of smell as a means of identification of water was replaced with sight, the visual perception of different kinds of water, and of bodies of water as entities, related to other kinds of water, yet distinctly themselves. These distinctions were enacted repeatedly through menstrual rite and the tabooed approaches of the menstruant toward forms of water.
***
Expert from the book Blood, Bread, and Roses: How Menstruation Created the World, Chapter 2: Light Moved on the Water, pp. 24-25, by Judy Grahn (also available online at http://bailiwick.lib.uiowa.edu/wstudies/grahn/index.htm).
FEATURED IN:
Art of Controversy
07/12/2014
WHAT question mark
01/05/2015
Women Who Run With the Wolves
02/22/2015
All Types Of Women
05/17/2015
Uploaded
July 8th, 2014
Statistics
Viewed 639 Times - Last Visitor from Fairfield, CT on 04/19/2024 at 4:42 AM
Embed
Sales Sheet
Mosman, NS - Australia
I am so late to this exquisite female moment so replete with what only WE know, but only what you could/have! said in the work. Thank You...........v.f.......VIVA
Sora Neva replied:
Dear Viva, I'm touched and honored by your response. It's never too late for anything, as long as we are alive and truly alive... Viva la Vida! - Frida would say.
WEST RYDE, NS - Australia
Dramatic and expressive artwork of what it means to be a woman at times and love your description Sora! I remember when I was going through perimenopausal at one stage and I definitely would have related to this image beautifully......lol! :-)
Sora Neva replied:
Wow, what a coincidence! Tonight I have just been listening to an awesome audiobook by Clarissa Pinkola Estés, The Joyous Body, and while she was talking about the power each menstruation bestows upon us and menopause, yes menopause, as a door into a whole new level of existence, one in which those powers stay with us permanently (!!!), I got a vision of Red River again... a new version...
Merritt Island, Fl - United States
Wow! I really find this brave artwork compelling. Great colors and circular brushstrokes, Sora. Interesting description, too. f/l
Zagreb, HR - Croatia
Thanks Jim. I don't watch TV (yep, for real), but may take a look on YouTube...
Tallahassee, FL - United States
Married with Children from FOX network. The only "family" TV sit-com I've ever enjoyed. I think it's over 20 years since the last episode but it is constantly rerun somewhere. Scenes are available on youtube.
Zagreb, HR - Croatia
I agree Jim, humor is always a good thing. It lets us step out of our own boxes... You mean Minnesota Women's Consortium?
Tallahassee, FL - United States
I'm married to a radical feminist. Feminist women need good senses of humor. They are, after all, dealing with men. One thing I heard at the old Tallahassee Feminist Women's Health Center was that for one week a month PMS made women act like men do all the time. I don't know if you're familiar with MWC but the women were dominant in it.
Zagreb, HR - Croatia
Thank you, Jim, for the feature in WHAT question mark. PMS is a patriarchal social construct, a "scarecrow" for men and women alike. Red River is about power, not weakness. About destruction of the Old, so the New could be created... And Robyn, thanks once again! -_-
Tallahassee, FL - United States
Re Dave's comment, my wife's favorite Married with Children episode was about Marcie, Peggy and Kelly forcing the men to take them on a fishing vacation to a remote cabin in the woods. When they got there two things occurred: torrential rains and mentrual periods. The three guys were trapped for the entire vacation with them in a one room log cabin while PMS ruled. The episode's name was "A Period Piece". l, f, WHAT?
Zagreb, HR - Croatia
Stanza dear, thank you for your warm words! When you say something, I know you mean it...
Smithers, BC - Canada
You are amazing moonstruck earthling! Uncompromising, honest, brave and beautiful, brava! L/F
Bern, Be - Switzerland
Ahhhh Sora Sora...I have been looking for something like this on FAA, and I find that YOU are the one who dared! GOOD GIRL!!!! Love ya, xo
Zagreb, HR - Croatia
Thanks Maggie and Rose! Your support is very encouraging. I am in an abstract (as in non-figurative) phase right now, but can hardly wait to go back to this subject...
Mt. Bethel, PA - United States
Sora, what a brave and bold painting this is! Sure caught me by surprise! It challenged all my internalized notions of menstruation and made me feel stronger at the end of it all! Brava!!!!! v/f
Flushing, NY - United States
Very bold art Sora. Respect to the uncompromising artist that you are. L/V
Zagreb, HR - Croatia
Hahaha, thanks Dave! You are golden. I would rather call her Ms. Creative, but there can be no creation without destruction... so by all means, do seek shelter!!! -_-
New Philadelphia, OH - United States
Sora, if you are a man, and you live with three girls and a woman who are experiencing their monthly visit from Mr. Cranky at the same time, you may want to seek shelter. Love this painting....gold...L/V
Zagreb, HR - Croatia
Thank you, Ed, for the feature in your - our group! The creation of Art of Controversy reminded me of this painting and its taboo-breaking potential, so I decided to photograph it and present as my contribution. Meanwhile I have met Carolyn and that, too, I owe to the group... -_-
Zagreb, HR - Croatia
Thanks Sarah, and thanks for sharing this with me! If you teach your girls about the beauty and strength of being a woman, then beautiful and strong will they grow...
Beverly Hills, CA - United States
I am in love with this piece! My girls are close to menarche, we are discussing women's mysteries every day. No shame! Only beauty and strength.
Ubud Bali Indonesia. Byron Bay Australia, Ba - International
What a powerful statement!!! We are all The blood and the earth
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