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Bridge Of Honor

Materials used:

• wood, Montana;
• plaster casts of my face;
• quartz stones, Montana;
• tree shelf fungus mushroom, New York;
• antler bone;
• feathers and grouse wings;
• fur, unknown species of origin

(wall mount)

This mask, Bridge of Honor, is one of my few duo masks. When I begin constructing this Mark Artistry piece, it felt only right that two related masks live in it. It could be two brothers – or two members of two different tribes. But, somehow, they are connected through an honoring of one another, which could easily be expanded to the full honor due between all citizens of this planet. We truly are all family. All healing between tribes or races or nationalities must have a base of mutual respect and honoring… of ourselves and one another. I loved the process of using two masks within the placement of all the natural objects that surround them. The fact that they are so close to each other automatically creates both a physical and an emotional bridge. This mask is one of my favorites, as I honor the honor they hold for each other, knowing bridges can be made, crossing barriers and belief systems.

As for the materials, first of all I love the knot–holed wood with insect bored trails that look like Egyptian hieroglyphics, which provided me a large background base to play on. I must include here that I had great difficulty deciding whether or not to use the fur piece. I am totally against the killing of animals for their fur. I found this bit of fur/hide/skin at a garage sale, and it spoke to me in a decidedly strong way. I felt I wanted to honor the soul essence of whatever animal this originally was, and after much meditation, I choose to place it in the mask piece. Perhaps that heartfelt need to honor it led me to the thoughts of the title, Bridge of Honor. It is interesting to me how a piece seems to build itself, with one thought leading to another.

In addition, I love the tree shelf fungus mushrooms – little bursts of accents, as well as the other materials: the strength of the antler bone piece (check out the bone protrusion coming out of the eye of the lower mask) and the quartz stones that lighten up the piece and add contrast to the darker, more somber mask face tones. Lastly, I still often like to include feathers when I can. Feathers seem to lift the mask artistry piece, and add an AIR component to the obvious land – EARTH energy. All the nature items blend to support the theme of honor, for me, and further solidify the bridge between Nature and Humanity.