INITIATION
Kinetic Mixed Media, 2025.
Alice in Wonderland, Vasilisa the Beautiful, Persephone—the seeker carries many names. In her search, she will leave the topside world to wander the mists of Unknown to figure out why the stars keep pulling at her hair.
Circling the stage, she will walk the path of the seasons, face a society that asks “who are you?” without waiting for the answer. She will visit a tea party with a golden cage where Time is uninvited, but lingering too long is madness, “a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” She will be forced to go on.
She will feel lost in these dark woods, begin to question everything, even lose her mind a little. This is good; it’s all part of the cycle. As the smiling Cheshire Cat points out, Resistance is Futile!
The path will turn from spring flowers and summer sweet grass to dead leaves, bones and twigs. The actor will encounter the white horseman of the morning, red of the high noon sun, and black of night. She will go to a place also of many names: to the Queen of Hearts’ garden, to Baba Yaga’s house on chicken legs, to Lady Death’s kiss.
She will be brave, and frankly a bit naive, but she will take from this place, as she passes through the looking glass, a seedling of wisdom she hadn’t before possessed. Perhaps the Queen’s beautiful garden wasn’t quite as lovely as she had imagined. Perhaps the Yaga’s skull lantern will provide her the insight she needs to see in these dark times. Perhaps the cycle of Death and knocking on Hades’ door will allow her to let go of the things that no longer serve, so she can make space for the new, which she will plant when she returns in the Spring, listening to the little doll in her apron pocket against her belly that guides her gut on the path of the Seasons.
I hope we will all get to know the Unknown, and become comfortable only in knowing comfort is an illusion. You will come out the other side. Newer, stranger, stronger, wiser. The only way out, after all, is through.
This piece is assembled on a mirror with candles, curtains, and a stage for the story to play out
Beads, sequins, mesh, metal and painted wood hookah-smoking caterpillar
Embroidery on the mad tea party tablecloth from Shakespeare’s Macbeth
The Seeker travels kinetically through the cycles of initiation
Clay was sculpted, fired and painted to create the fence harkening to Baba Yaga’s house on chicken legs
Seeker travels to Baba Yaga’s house and passes through the looking glass
Detail work of wire web and 2/3 of horsemen in the Baba Yaga’s legend—as chess pieces
A look at the seeker mechanism
Playing with layout before assembly of 3D structure
The path/chessboard of the 4 seasons begins in Spring flowers and ends in winter twigs & bones
A chess piece appreciation
Initial detail work on tablecloth embroidery
Early stages pre assembly of the stage
Look closely—the cat’s fur and ribboned tail spell out “resistance is futile”
Initial sketching of Cheshire Cat’s ribboned typographic tail