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Partners

Materials used:

  • curly cottonwood roots, Madison River, Montana;
  • two plaster casts, of one of my face, one of my partner’s face;
  • black sand, Hawaii;
  • cowry shells, Hawaii;
  • miscellaneous shells, Hawaii;
  • sea urchin spikes, Hawaii;
  • wasp nest paper, Montana;
  • gray and green tree moss, lichen

(table mount)

This Mask Artistry piece is “Partners”. Though it is not for sale, I include the photo of it here, simply to share the image.

This was my very first mask and I cannot part with it. As I write the “Partners” backstory today, June of 2017, I've only been creating masks for a year and a half. Before my first mask creation, I was in a monthly art process studio class taught by Collette Brooks-Hops in Bozeman, Montana. One month, her students were asked to build a mask that represented some aspect of our selves. I completed the assignment, making the mask on the left. Then I made a cast of my partner’s face, and added that to mine to represent the partnership between us.

Well, that was the start…. I guess I found my artistic niche at 66 years old – and I kept on making more and more Mask Artistry pieces, experimenting and learning with each new creation. I totally fell in love with the process, which has its roots in Collette’s class. Not only are Doug and I in “partnership,” but I also feel I am in “partnership” with each and every mask I have made since the very first one.

Those early Mask Artistry pieces gradually became a collection, which then developed into a small business. I am so fortunate to have this opportunity to embrace what is simply PASSION – and to express, joyfully, through all these Mask Artistry pieces. It all began as one class assignment in one art class, and will now never stop.

This piece, “Partners,” is my thank you to Doug Morley, my beloved partner… for encouraging me in this artistic endeavor, helping me find incredibly good wood bases, screwing on little bits of hanging hardware to the back of my masks, soothing me when I'm frustrated over some difficult part in process work, and for simply being my loving partner.

If you have a partner such as I have, you are indeed as fortunate as I am. I celebrate all loving, supportive partnerships in my first Mask Artistry creation, “Partners.”