“Original Mother intends to tell a story…

...intending to tell a story

Kimberly Nichols read all of my notes and journal entries as I was working on Original Mother and wrote the following:

Original Mother

Original Mother represents the initial seed of all humanity that, when coupled with our myriad lineages across eons of social, political and chronological history, takes us back to that universally common abstract moment of life’s first true spark upon this earth. The place, relative to us all, where existence burst forth, that although has been communally washed away in the psyche by time, cannot be denied its presence in our blood, bones and flesh.

As if unearthed from the ground, she carries a ruddy exterior reminiscent of mud, dirt and primal matter, layered in meticulously applied custom patinas and stains, denoting the relationship of erosion juxtaposed against timeless survival and the dance between terra firma and animate existence. Arms around her legs, she sits in quiet meditation, revealed and repositioned amidst all the complexities, ambiguities and contradictions of being human.

Two faces grace Original Mother. One is soothing and conjures the womb while the other gazes solidly at the viewer provoking profound inner reflection surrounding one’s place on this earth. The unconditional gazes of the mother, holding space for the potential of self-individuation and realization as we stand in the wake of worldly experience. She is curious, yet without judgment.

The markings on Original Mother represent a corporeal energy, an unconscious instinctive force. A pronounced spine carries upon it a metamorphosis of symbols culled from every era, culture, religion and esoteric sect, rendering all indistinguishable yet inherently familiar and homogenous.

At the intersection of pelvis and gut, lies her Kundalini energy; the sleeping, dormant potential force of the human organism.

Conceptually, the diamond (made from our infrastructural carbon building block) on the top of her head evokes clarity, ascension and wisdom.

A symbol of our universal matrilineal ancestry, more ancient then the mitochondrial Eve; pre-Christ, Mohammed or Abraham, she educes a cultural respect for life in its very presence, stripped of the ego’s illusions as mater matura or “mother of the first dawn.”

Original Mother intends to tell a story of resurrection celebration, as an icon, sharing the elixir of belonging and the merging of the spiritual and material worlds.

To observe the Original Mother is to expose all of our inner questioning and to be open to a direct, visual dialogue with our ancient cellular memory.