Last week I finished the 12″ square I am donating for this year’s benefit auction.  “Tidelines 7” is now on its way; it may have already arrived.  This is unusual for me, I am normally up against a deadline, but I don’t think this year’s work is any the worse for having been produced at a more leisurely pace in plenty of time, either. 

These small pieces are often in effect studies for larger works, in which I resolve issues and anticipate others that might arise from changing to a larger scale.  I hope it does well in the auction, which is held each year to help support the exhibition and education programmmes of the Studio Art Quilt Association, of which I am a professional artist member, PAM.

Three days after the  evening on the beach where Sally and I observed the goings on for Iamanja’s birthday, an article appeared in the local paper El Pais describing the event with pics of the particular beach we’d been on.  (well, it was just down and along a bit from the newspaper offices) Although probably the action began just after dark, certainly things were well underway when we arrived just before midnight, and we saw new groups coming and people leaving all the time we were there.  Nevertheless, I would not have described the crowd as ‘thousands’  but perhaps they meant all along the coast that edges the metropolitan area, then it would be so, I guess.  The article referred to the 100.000+ adherents of this faith system currently active in Montevideo itself.  Interesting.  I believe I have found someone who will soon talk with me about the symbolism and basic principles, and will write more on that after I have met her.

After any good party, there is always mess to be cleaned up!  The next day, according to the paper, from 8am that day, over 100 city workers plus machinery were cleaning the beaches of debris, and certainly the beaches on the edge of the city had been all cleaned off wonderfully before midday.  Our local beach , Carrasco, was cleaned as far east as the casino, but not further along, where I walk from the casino to the naval school – it was a terrible mess, captured in the collaged pics above.  A couple of days later there was even more mess, but for the technical reason that I had forgotten my camera ! I can’t show you the heavy line of small bits of styrofoam shapes and other bits of junk that were washed up.  I was astonished to see an almost elderly couple who had parked their chairs on the dry sand, and were standing knee deep in the rather unhealthy shallows – I hope they were deciding not to swim….  I didn’t wait around watching them – there was no one else around, and it would have been a bit obvious I was watching them.   A lot of the gifts were organic in nature and therefore will be biodegrading as I write.  Perhaps it is safe now to swim there.   Yesteray, 10th feb, there was nothing much along the tideline, it seemed to have all been sucked into the water and on its way down to the Atlantic where some of it will end up in one of those vast whorls of plastic rubbish in several parts of the ocean, of just floating around out there being so harmful to marine life.  

I have said before one of the goddess’ likes is anything pretty and blue, and she is very vain.  So perfume (the label on the bottle above says Touch of Love) and blue predominates in the offerings, plus white, the colours of the sea.  Even the glass that might have toasted her was partly blue – and was just left dangerously lying in the sand ….

A friend and I went along the coast a little to the beach where a great deal  is said to happen on Imianja’s birthday – and so it proved.  After midnight we spent an interesting hour plus, wandering among groups  large and small, on the sand, most of their participants costumed in roomy satin gear with head caps or tied bandannas mostly white, too.  A couple of also had figures dressed in yellow, red and blue, and I hope soon to talk with someone who can explain a significance I sensed and some of the things I am curious about.  My friend Sally commented how calm and  focused people were.  There was a lot of soft drum beating, and frequently tiny little bells ringing in  some kind of ritual over the boats that people had built and brought to the beach to be loaded with the goddess’ birthday gifts before being floated out to sea.  In addition to things I have often seen on the beach and written about – fruit, vegetables, pop corn, blue and white flowers, ribbons, beads, silvery glittery things, there were often mirrors ( she is known to be vain) small bottles of perfume,  meringues, and lots and lots of candles, blue or white.  Preparations we saw included honey being either added to the boat or poured over what had been placed in there.  We heard group members checking to make sure this and that item had been added – someone had definitely put in a small amount of money – in one of the boats I spied a cheap watch.  Wonder if it was going, and if it still is.   Most boats were made of styrofoam sheeting sealed with blue tape.  Some were elaborately edged and trimmed with tiny blue beads or fabric trim.  You can see some of these things in the photos I took for which the following is the link:

https://picasaweb.google.com/Alison.Schwabe/February2nd2012BirthdayOfSeaGoddessImianja?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCO_13qviudKTiAE&feat=directlink

So I got to bed after 1-30.  I woke and went down to the local Carrasco beach a few hours later, at 7am, and goodness, the beach was strewn with wreckage from the night’s activvity.  I can’t tell you how many dead chickens were spread out along the beach, most of them headless (we saw none anywhere on the other beach the night before)   No one in their right mind will go swimming in this bay for at least a week, maybe more, stomach churning!  I took photos of wreckage sites, and a disturbing thing was the amount of plastic – which of course includes the ubiquitous styrofoam.  I truly wish all plastic was rapidly biodegradable – there was a lot of it around.  I met a neighbour walking his dog and he made it clear how angry it all made him,  saying something like ‘it’s all phony anyway – this stuff belongs in brasil – they’re just stupidly copying it here.  I hate it’.  He has a point about the plastic, and the myriad of candles, but whether he’s correct about the validity of this, um, belief system, which has swelled in recent years, I’m not so sure. 

Anyway enjoy the photos.