A most impressive row of offerings at the tideline this morning

My finger holds back paper it rests on, seemingly a picture of someone's home which I feel sure is a focal point of the supplication

further up the beach and apart from the others, but showing a similar hand. Love the symmetry on the left.

Well, I have never seen anything like this lineup on the beach this morning – I am so glad I had my camera as per NY resolution #2.   In the leadup to the feb. 2 night of Imanja, 

www.hranajanto.com/goddessgallery/yemaya.html

there seem to be rather more of these things appearing on the beach every day, and overall in the past decade or so there have been a lot more visible signs of this belief system around than were in the past here in Uruguay, according to one of my friends here; although she feels that in hard times people turn more to this spirt world for help, and that these offerings are requests for aid or relief, for the goddess to direct perhaps money, work or food to the family who makes this offering.  Perhaps protection is being sought, and certainly bases being covered, just in case there is anything she can do to ease a current difficulty.  Imanja is known to like blue the colour of the sea (I found a bunch of 8 blue candles tied with blue ribbon on the beach a couple of weeks back …) pearls and popcorn – there certainly was some of that spread around this morning, see top picture.  All the offerings I saw had plenty of black beans, rice , corn and polenta along with fruits and flowers. And many had either meat or chickens – basic needs in fact.  I haven’t noticed it yet but apparently occasionally you will find a bottle of strong cologne which she likes, and the there is a male counterpart too to whom often bottles of cheap hooch are included – canja spirit or something like that.  In the article in the link above, fabric is referred to and certainly many today had what loooked like a garment included in the assembly, and really you often see pieces of fabric and discarded garments on the beach …..so that’s explained.  On Feb 2nd at around midnight many people gather on the beaches here to set and launch offerings into the water, lots of candles, some even go out in boats – we’ll be wandering along the beach that night this year; we’ve always either forgotten or not been around.

It’s interesting  to see new technology  (coloured photocopies, second photo down)  combining with older belief systems from who knows how far back, and these came via Brasil where African slave beliefs were transmuted and combined with the younger christian system, and of course this co-existence or overlaying of one with the other system exists in many parts of the world, Roman Catholicism being particularly suited to such blending.  One of my local friends tells me that the park near where she lives is favoured for gatherings of these groups of which there are many, and you need to get a permit to hold such events which include chanting and drum beating.  If you live near popular spots the noise can get on one’s nerves, hence the permits- we sometimes hear them and have been known to get in the car and go find them and listen a while, but I haven’t seen anything I felt was ritualistic – it’s often just drumming for the pure joy of it all – drumming has recently been placed on the World Heritage Intangible Cultural Heritage List, which is pretty marvellous.   From V’s park down to the riverfront is not far, so stuff on the ground there is more likely to be rubbish rather than carefully designed and placed offerings, sadly. 

Imanja, the Goddess of The Sea, has many followers, and some call the system ‘witchcraft’ but but that may be too strong a word.  But whatever it is, a lot of ritual and procedures are involved in placing of offerings, and believers form or belong to groups, with the acolytes having  much to learn before they can lead a group of followers.   I’m told and that people come and go from it in the strength of their adherence to devotions, drifting away when their circumstances improve, but coming back when times are tougher, kind of thing.  And I will be trying to find out more.  So a lot of what looks like rubbish on the beach isn’t really as I’d always thought – but that doesn’t get away from how many people in this country are still way too casual about discarding their rubbish, and at times I shudder to think of what is drifting down that river channel out there below the surface ….

The fruit looked really good quality, and enough of it plus popcorn, rice and beans there for quite a family feast ...

Wished I had my camera when I found this pair of sacrificed chickens near the water's edge on the beach this morning.

OK – that’s it, I am forced to announce a second resolution – from now on the little digital camera is going with me on my walks with the dog –  there is always something of interest and although I may not post it every day, I plan to take at least one pic per day.

Today I almost took that camera.  Silly me – because now I can only post the above drawing from memory and tell you in words what I saw.  The two offered  1/3 grown chickens lay on beds of corn/rice/beans, on styrofoam trays, chicken feathers protruding from each side; and these assemblies lay on flattened supermarket bags placed on the wet sand.  They’d presumably been placed near the receding water’s edge, some time before dawn I imagine.  Must get down there earlier ….

On the Quiltart list today, one writer, Delores, announced she was determined to take her art in some new directions this year, mentioning both techniques and themes.   That reminded me of another artist friend who for a year did not teach, write, exhibit or attend any classes but focused on thinking about her work and coming to terms with where she wanted it to go, rather like a sabbatical.  There were several interesting responses to Delores’ post, and I wrote about what I have long recognised about my work over 20 plus years.  (I am quietly cerebral …) I thought my blog readers would probably also like to read this expansion of some of the material in my bio page, elsewhere on this website .

Long before I began making quilted textile art in 1998, I had a background in creative, interpretive stitchery, which indeed occasionally included the quilting technique as a surface texture.  But since 1988 I have been making quilted textile artworks, aka ‘quilts’ and during that time there have been several identifiable changes of direction: never because I have felt ‘bored’ with what I was doing, but always in response to one stimulus or another that has periodically lured/steered me off on a new path.  My website galleries (menu above) are arranged MOL chronologically, but like in the zodiac there are ‘cusps’.  So, I can say that the I recognise the following stimuli in the development of my work :

1. I relocated From Outback Australia to Denver USA – where learned traditional quilt construction and at the same time met some very stimulating creative textile artists with common and overlapping interests in quilt designing, making, exhibiting, writing, contemporary embroidery … and in 1988 began what became my Ancient Expression series
2. from mid-Ancient Expressions when I became interested in strips and linear boundaries, I did two workshops with Nancy Crow in 1990, 1992, and Colour Memories developed
3. The Ebb & Flows developed from Colour Memories because I suddenly found myself living in Uruguay  (1) where I could not buy fabrics I was used to working with and so brought bags of scraps and offcuts (as well as some yardage) over from Australia each time I came,   (2) around 2000 – 2002 I was thinking about the frugal origins of patchwork and how they have influenced modern quilted textile art   (3) and people here use up resources/materials or pass things on   (4) I also was gobsmacked by the intricate piecing being used in her colour explorations by Perth Aus textile artist and close friend, Margery Goodall www.margerygoodall.com   (QN09 exhibitor Erin Wilson also used extremely intricate piecing construction for her beautiful work)
4. The Tracks series began when (1) around 2004 I started cutting into leather and experimenting with it with a view to using it somehow (the leather is a a symbol linking my australian life with Uruguay)  (2) Landscape processes have always been part of my vision but as I have aged they have became metaphorical for ‘Life’,  (3) around 2004? I did a workshop with Chungee Lee, so the potential of sheers, not the Korean construction itself, assumed an importance which has rolled on  (someone somewhere around this time mentioned ‘woodburning tool’ …)

If you do go to my website galleries after reading this, you’ll find I have just added some new works to Tracks and Ebb& Flow galleries, since they  are now on exhibition here in Uruguay www.galerialoscaracoles.com