Tincal Lab Challenge 2022
Jewelry and Literature
In this project created by @tincallab, drawing inspiration from the reading of Jean S. Bolen's book, Goddesses in Everywoman, I desired to synthesise the essence of three female archetypes, represented in Greek mythology by three Goddesses.
I started with Artemis, the essence of the feminine as an infallible capacity for focused action, symbol of an embodied Woman who perfectly realises her own nature as an individual being.
A woman who embodies the archetype of Artemis points her goal to herself, and with the bow of her well-rounded heart she shoots the arrow of her being into the world. Magnificent and unrepeatable parable is outlined in the ether of reality.
From the pages of the book attributed to Apollodorus entitled Library, in which the lives and genealogies of the Greek Gods are narrated, I extracted the detail of the name of the Goddess in Greek, making this cover the silver core of the arrow: in this way I intended to symbolically incorporate the essence of the Goddess into the same material the ring is made of.
The worlds on the ring are an excerpt from this phrase - Ἄρτεμις μὲν οὖν τὰ περὶ θήραν ἀσκήσασα παρθένος ἔμεινεν - which can be translated this way: 'Artemis indeed devoted herself to hunting and remained a virgin'.
.png)
After Artemis, I recognised in Demeter the essence of the feminine, as the inexhaustible capacity to generate.
I created the structure of this piece with papier-mâché obtained from the pages of the book attributed to Apollodorus entitled Library, in which the lives and genealogies of the Greek gods are narrated. In this way, I intended to symbolically incorporate the divine essence into the same material the jewel is made of. To also incorporate the concrete side of the Goddess, I used pigments of burnt shadow earth, burnt sienna and natural sienna, as well as chalk and natural fibre.
Demeter, the feminine on the plane of matter. Inexhaustible capacity to create, to generate fruit from her womb, when it is not at rest. Fruits, food for the spirit, which thanks to them can keep its earthly forms alive.
Fruits of all types, shapes, colours, sizes. Fruits of all tastes: bitter, sweet, delicate, spicy. Fruit as a result of the creative capacity of Demeter, Mother Earth. Every being on earth is the fruit of Demeter.
Demeter rests: it is winter, her womb is flat. She awakens: it is spring, the period of insemination. Demeter's apotheosis is in summer: her womb is at maximum expansion. She gives birth in autumn. And the four seasons are but the faces of Demeter in her annual creative process.
.png)
After Artemis and Demeter, I identified in Estia the essence of the feminine spiritual nature, as the infinite capacity to welcome.
Also the material with which I created this piece is papier-mâché obtained from the pages of the book attributed to Apollodorus.
Estia is the Spirit in her feminine nature: infinite welcoming of the hearth as a circular space full of light and warmth, vivified at its centre by the sacred Fire of Eternity.
Compassion of the Heart, Wisdom of the Mind, imperturbable Serenity of Soul: these, the unmistakable traits of Estia.
These words written by T. S. Eliot in the 1st of the Four Quartets are worth describing Her:
"The inner freedom from the practical desire,
The release from action and suffering, release from the inner
And the outer compulsion, yet surrounded
By a grace of sense, a white light still and moving..."
Within her hearth Estia welcomes the whole world and all its movement, imperturbable remaining at the centre, in empathetic and loving participation of the Heart.