Karen MacKenzie News

'Leo/Sekhmet' prowl into my Zodiac series.

Sun, 01 Apr 2012 13:45:48 CDT

Egyptian deserts and an ancient Goddess reborn.

The fifth painting in my 'Empowered Feminine Zodiac' series is based on Leo the Lion whose realm is the heat of August and the Heart. Leos are known for leadership qualities and tend to be enthusiastic and not easily daunted.

For our version of Leo Peggy knew right away that we should use Sekhmet, the lion headed Goddess of Egypt.

Considered a fierce Goddess whose destructive powers were placated by various rituals conducted by the Egyptians, Sekhmet was created by her father the sun God Ra to destroy mortals who conspired against him.

While at odds with the warm-hearted generous spirit of Leo, I found a bridge one day when I flashed on the women of The Arab Spring and the Egyptian uprising that toppled the Mubarak regime. Their fierce courage and love personifies the lioness who will fight to the death to protect her children. As Peggy wrote: "Her name is often translated as 'Powerful One'. Sekhmet and the Lioness are one, inseparable. Both a warrior and healer, she strikes a blow to corruption and deceit. We heard her righteous voice in the women of Arab Spring".

Once I made that connection I felt inspiration and went to work.

My friend Barbie-Danielle DeCarlo modeled for me on this piece. She is brilliant and fiery and beautiful and embodies the spirit of Leo.

Here is the initial sketch....

Followed by the imprimatura layer and sky....

Further along....

The lioness was a challenge, but she eventually let me tame her!

Here she is in her finished form. You can see her full-sized here.

The making of Xochiquetzal / 'Cancer' in my 'Empowered Feminine Zodiac'series

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 18:51:58 CST

Painting my way South of the Border~~~

To the land of the ancient Aztecs and their Moon Goddess/Mother Goddess Xochiquetzal for whom a giant pyramid is erected in Teotihuacan . Xochiquetzal (dubbed 'Madam X) is also mother to the famous Quetzalcoatl the feathered serpent God.

My journey took me into unfamiliar territory and a culture with deeply ancient roots, a place of mystery, superstition and shamanism. As a major Goddess of the Aztecs Xochiquetzal was honored for the blessing of abundant crops and procreating livestock. She is usually depicted as being followed by birds and butterflies and ruled over love, marriage, women, weaving and changes and was the patroness of sacred prostitutes, physicians, artists, and dancers. Her name means 'Goddess of the flowering Earth'.

Here is an ancient depiction of her:

Bringing Xochiquetzal into the 21st Century~~~

As an artist looking at the image above I was at first flummoxed as to how I would represent her. It helped as always to be working with Peggy Petersen who has spent a lot of time in Southern Mexico and she brought the culture alive for me. We looked at the clothing that was worn by the Aztecs, and she also turned me onto the powerful voice of contemporary singer Lila Downs whose music depicts the soul of the Mexican feminine. Her face and energy influenced my rendering of Xochiquetzal.

Jaguars appeared early on, edging through the shadows of the deep jungle of my psyche and quietly took their place next to Madam X. Then the Quetzal birds flew in followed by Monarch Butterflies and then I had my primary elements and set to work.

Here is the initial drawing for the painting which I've covered with a thin coat of paint or tint also known as Imprimatura :

Next came sky...

Then came the moonlight on the water, rocks and the beginnings of jungle foliage...

And along came the birds...

The first jaguar...(and then then the spotted one in stages)...

Her face began to emerge...and here she is almost complete!!!

See the finished painting 'here'.

Charles Stokes-Northwest Mystic Painter with a twist.

Sun, 13 Nov 2011 21:24:02 CST

Stepping into the mystic circle...

When I first enrolled at Cornish College of the Arts in the early '80s I had no idea who Charles Stokes was, but as soon as I stepped into his anatomy class I was utterly enthralled by his vitality and brilliance. He was at once irreverent and pulsing with challenges. I was one of the lucky ones that edged my way into the inner-sanctum of his magical world and his influence found a chord within my creative soul that resonates to this day.

Here's Charles sitting in front of a charcoal drawing which would be the basis of the paintings evolution using gouache to develop even more complex and illuminated lines. The first time I saw one of his paintings (which was five or six feet long and painted on a piece of mulberry paper that Morris Graves had given him) it sparkled with so much luminosity that I turned around to see if someone had turned on a special light!

Charles lived outside of time...or so it seemed. And as a result his artwork has yet to really be documented. As far as I know it is sequestered in private collections and in a few museums, and I look forward to the day when someone takes on the process of really cataloging his work. Much of what he was doing when I knew him he described as "archetechtonic"...like universal lay lines that take the viewer into never before seen realms. And that is what Charles sought to do...to make the unseen visible...or more specifically to create something that hadn't been seen before.

Charles was an exacting task-master, always pushing his students to go beyond trite into the transcendent. I've always remembered a quote he gave me: "In ancient times elders wrought with greatest care each minute and unseen part, for the Gods see everywhere". He spoke of the power of duality in the creative process and in one painting exercise he had us laminate an Oriental paper onto a European paper and to then choose two opposite colors (mine were green and red) and to then visually delve into the concept of opposites at once dueling and melding and ultimately creating dynamic introspection by way of starting with a zen-like gesture and then coming up with a painterly response. Below is one of Charles versions of this exercise.

('Sudden Hysteria' by Charles Stokes)

When I threw myself into the Fine Art department at Cornish, I had no idea who the Northwest Mystics were...and I certainly wasn't aware of the kind of initiation I was receiving through Charles' mentoring. I was enthralled and deeply challenged and more alive than I'd ever been. I lived and breathed art. It became my religion. And Charles was without a doubt the reigning High Priest. He challenged my assumptions relentlessly and if I spoke too much about myself he would break into an operatic "I me me I"!!!! He was at once breaking me and opening me to a place of purity...a mindset that had no place for duality. Sometimes I was downright afraid. But Charles was kind, too, and a father to my creativity.

('Bay of Dreams Cascade')

A Force of Nature the like of which will never be again...

Charles left Cornish in 1985 with my best friend at the time Millicent Cummings, a voraciously talented artist herself. We had spent a great deal of time together as friends and creative cohorts often ending our evenings over champagne at the Pink Door. They moved to San Francisco and I moved into Charles' old apartment above the Paramount Theater and tried to adjust to life without the equivalent of Henry & June electrifying my existence. The heart and soul of my Cornish experience was gone and I soon followed suit going off to have my own adventures and eventually losing track of Charles.

Years later while stopping on Capitol Hill for a coffee I ran into an old art school friend Ferdous Ahmed who told me he'd just been in New York. I asked him if he'd looked up Charles. And that's when I found out that Charles had died (http://www.seattlepi.com/ae/article/Charles-Stokes-1944-2008-Seattle-painter-never-1271124.php). I had just gotten an address for him and was meaning to write, but it was too late. I was compelled to contact his sons, Ian and Saul and found Saul on MySpace. We wrote back and forth and it was comforting to see Charles' genius passed down to his children.

Then one night I had him in a dream. We were standing in a pool of water (an element we both shared astrologically, he being a Pisces and me a Cancer)...we communed spiritually and lovingly and then his face turned into that of a Tibetan dragon like a reminder of his teachings around duality and illusion and I woke up in a lucid state. It was 3 a.m. and the sound of his jazz piano playing filled the air and then dissipated.

I will continue to explore my own distillation of Charles' teachings. The way of the mystic is well suited for painters...our necessary hours of solitude and striving for the ephemeral made visible. Although they say that Charles was the last of the Northwest Mystics, I would like to suggest that the tradition lives on and perhaps by virtue of their creative nature the new NW Mystics have yet to be discovered.

Note: Charles Stokes Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Stokes

New 'Gemini' fine art prints are now available

Fri, 04 Nov 2011 14:20:15 CDT

Follow the Rainbow !!!

I just had my new 'Gemini' painting photographed, translated to a disk (oh modern wonders), and now have it available for sale as prints, giclees or stretched canvas from FineArtAmerica!!! (Click the link to view or purchase Gemini Goddesses of the Rainbow.)

The original 'Gemini' piece was painted in oil on masonite. The subject matter is Gemini and I've depicted the twin Greek Goddesses of the Rainbow...so it's colorful

I'll be painting 'Cancer' next and going south of the U.S. border and delving into Aztec mythology, jungles, jaguars and feathered head-dresses!!! Please check back while I wend my way through all twelve signs of the Zodiac.

Note: here is the the original Gemini painting on my website as well.

Taurus: A painting dedicated to the healing and rebirth of Japan

Tue, 25 Oct 2011 22:06:14 CDT

Still the cherry blossoms in the midst of destruction~~~

Just as I was preparing to embark on the next painting (Taurus) in my Zodiac series, a massive earthquake hit Japan followed by a 23 foot tsunami on March 11th 2011. It was incomprehensible. The ensuing video coverage of waters rising to cover buildings...surging through villages and carrying cars like small toys...people, their whole lives devastated in an incremental span of time, left many of us paralyzed with the horror that these pictures show:

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2011/03/massive_earthquake_hits_japan.html

How to respond? Good people and organizations rallied as with so many crises of this age, from Indonesia to Haiti, Somalian strife and mid-western tornadoes. An endless on-going list. And so while having a conversation with Stefani Quane about the attributes of Taurus she mentioned it being 'zen-like' and suddenly I was struck by a deep tearful emotion and knew that I would dedicate my new Zodiac painting to the healing of the people of Japan. And so it began...

Painting a Japanese Goddess of beauty and Fertility~~~

There are an amazing amount of Gods and Goddesses represented in various Japanese religions and traditions, (http://www.lowchensaustralia.com/names/godsjapanese.htm) and while Peggy burned through possible corollaries we suddenly landed on a particular Goddess 'Kichijoten' who in many ways fit Taurus by representing beauty and fertility AND she is depicted wearing a Phoenix head-dress. There it was! The essential piece. The perfect symbol of healing and resurrection for Japan.

So after a lot pictorial research concerning temples, kimonos, Mt. Fuji, cherry blossoms and bulls the parts came together into a whole and in my own way I created a prayer of healing for Japan (including the Japanese word for 'healing' on the sleeve of the kimono).

Here is a link to the finished painting: 'Taurus-A Tribute to Japan'

There is so much more I would like to offer to the beautiful people of Japan in their struggle to rebuild, physically and spiritually...but this second painting of the Zodiac is my humble beginning. I would love to know if anyone else has been inspired to create artwork to express connectedness to this particular event and its ongoing ramifications?