Saturday, March 18, 2017

Art Challenge: Ritual/ Routine



When lovely Nadine of tinywoolf declared the theme for this art challenge "ritual/ routine", I knew I wanted to participate. It's such an interesting subject, I thought it would be easy to come up with something good. While I find the concept of ritual to be quite fascinating, I found that when I actually sat down to think about what I would do, I had difficulty narrowing it down to a workable size. I mean, it's a BIG concept; it covers a lot of ground. So I thought looking up the definition might help, give me some clues or spark an idea.

Here is Merriam Webster's definition:
  1. :  the established form for a ceremony; specifically :  the order of words prescribed for a religious ceremony
  2. 2a :  ritual observance; specifically :  a system of rites
     b :  a ceremonial act or action
     c :  an act or series of acts regularly repeated in a set precise manner


Humans are creatures of habit, as are all creatures, it seems. My dogs will wake me up at the same time every morning, and expect to be fed at 5:00. We naturally fall into forming patterns, of doing things at the same time in the same way over and over again. I would suggest that this saves some part of our brain to think about working out more complex problems, because we don't have to re-think when we're going to brush our teeth every day. Or maybe not.





Rituals are also important to the formation and continuance of societies; we agree to elect our leaders the same way at repeated intervals, we decide on the guilt or innocence of people who break our laws by using a set, prescribed, series of rituals. If we didn't have rituals in place for these things, no society could survive, but would quickly descend into chaos.



 Weighing of the Heart Ceremony, Book of the Dead, 1285 bCE


Based on the definition above, the word "ritual" covers everything from the sacred burial rites of the ancient Egyptians to the "March Madness" college basketball tournament to brushing our teeth at the same time each day. (Just to amuse myself, I thought about making a shrine with a toothbrush inside of it; I know - weird sense of humor!)  So I'm probably thinking about this way too much, but my ideas for this piece just kept bigger and bigger, and I realized there was no way I could do it justice in the short time I had left. In fact, it's really still in the planning stages; I'll share it here as I work on it.



Invocation of Tara
ingredients: map fragment, magazine cut-outs, image transfers, artist pens, watercolor pencils


So I decided to use a piece I had already been working on, which does relate to the concept of ritual in an obvious way. Tara is the Tibetan Buddhist Goddess of Compassion, and rituals to honor her have been performed since the 6th century and possibly longer. According to Wikipedia, "Tārā became a very popular Vayrayana deity with the rise of Tantra in 8th-century Pala and, with the movement of Indian Buddhism into Tibet through Padmasambhava, the worship and practices of Tārā became incorporated into Tibetan Buddhism as well. She eventually came to be considered the "Mother of all Buddhas," which usually refers to the enlightened wisdom of the Buddhas, while simultaneously echoing the ancient concept of the Mother Goddess in India.... Tārā is also known as a saviouress, as a heavenly deity who hears the cries of beings experiencing misery in samsara."

The image of Tara I used for this piece is based on a centuries-old painting somewhere; I have unfortunately lost track of the source. By the way, she is not always green; different aspects of Tara are different colors. Green Tara is one of the most popular.


Be sure to visit Nadine at tinywoolf to find out what the other participants came up with for the challenge. Happy weekend, everyone!





10 comments:

  1. hi sharmon, thank you for playing so consciously on our this week's / month's theme. i know what you mean though; it doesn't bear thinking about what all 'ritualistic' we do, day in, day out. and yes, they can save our ass, or whatever... ;))). make sure to show us the finished piece!
    (and yes, my life runs pretty smoothly. i think it's because i finally decided i wanted it to.) ;)))

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    1. Thanks, Nadine, I really enjoyed this theme! I will shoe the piece as it progresses, but right now it's more in the planning stage. Maybe one day I will get my life as organized as yours.

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  2. the weighing of the heart with the feather of truth...

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    1. Yes, the feather of Maat, which must be pretty heavy for a feather...lol

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  3. Stunning piece, Sharmon! I love the patterns.

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  4. Every thing you have talked about is one of the reasons I enjoy our AC. The fact that it can take us on a journey of exploration and then let it inspire some form of art.

    Your collage is wonderful. I think I also would have enjoyed a toothbrush shrine, wonderful humor.

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    1. Hi Tammie, and thanks for the kind words. That toothbrush shrine idea did make me laugh..

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  5. It's lovely to see you and your artwork again Sharmon! You are too funny. Your ideas getting bigger and bigger seems to be a problem you and I share. Thanks for sharing this one with us.

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    1. Hi Carole! My ideas sometimes get so big I lose control of them, which is what happened in this case. I think I just need to slow down and take it one step at a time!

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Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts with me. I'm happy to reply here, but may not always have time for individual emails.