Earth Artist
Oh how I love to do workshops! I meet so many interesting and enthusiastic people loving art and different art techniques. I love the sharing and connections everyone makes.
Recently I invited a few artist friends over who wanted to learn how to apply gold leaf into artwork. I was looking forward to working with them. Yet I discovered a dynamic that was different from other workshops. In doing these I get a lot of questions, interactions and discussions occurring around my demonstrations.
There was one woman and the rest men in this group. It was so silent, I began to feel nervous. Wow! That was something I didn’t expect! I had to laugh at the situation. My only female artist made a 
comment that went into answering a question she had for clarification and assurance of the process. During this, one male artist even turned his back, did some more work on his art piece while glancing back over his shoulder so as not to seem too rude. At first it would seem it was just the difference between males and females, but I began to realize it was the artists attending. All the men were accomplished artists. The woman had very little experience painting, let alone, being introduced to gold leaf into an art piece.
Also, the male artists really wanted to get moving along with their art pieces…they knew what they wanted to do. The woman, new to the processes and creatives around her, held her own, one to be admired for her determination to create something different than what she has done before. Altogether, it was a wonderful experience and I enjoyed the varied approaches each applied to their individual pieces and the camaraderie that emerged in the few hours invested in the workshop.
Inspiration comes in different ways. Recently I joined a group of artists, all women, to support our art endeavors and experiences. From the conversations and my studies of ancient artworks, I found I was drawn to the small stone statues of voluptuous women, well-known as “Venus”. Soon thereafter, visions of this ancient beauty flooded my thoughts…I had to paint her.
I prepared the canvas, mixed my paints and began to work swept up in the ancestral past. Incorporated into the painting are symbols that not only were found in ancient cave etchings, but cross into roots of ancient written languages such as Egyptian, Phoenician, and Hebraic pictographs. Embedded into this painting are the meanings given by scholars today. The ancient relics of Venus are mostly regarded as fertility goddesses. Yet, women had a more valuable standing where, “Earth brings forth life, and Earth nourishes life, and so is the analogous powers of woman…the mother too of our second birth, our birth as spiritual entities.”¹ And this work conveys that…
Woman — nurtures, sustains and maintains tender constant support and protection
Staff — teacher, guide, protection, moving forward (feminine)
Ox — power, strength, leadership (masculine). Together these symbolize authority. “EL” is the Aleph, the first, and Lamed, the staff.
Position of figure — like the Hebraic “tsade” meaning side. It is the trail, path or journey the individual takes.
Jennifer Rugge 