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Beth Loraine Bowman

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shelter series

shelter
shelter

shelter series | Media List


Statement

SHELTER series. mixed media works on wood panel, completed in 2004

Vulture: Ambivalent as maternal solicitude, protection and shelter, and as death-dealing destruction and voracity. All vultures were thought to be female and symbolized the feminine principle with the hawk as male; they were said to combine ‘the age of China, the sorcery of Egypt and the cunning of Arabia’. As a scavenger the vulture represented purification, a worker for good. In Egypt it represented the Mother Goddess, maternity and love, Isis having assumed the form of a vulture; it is purification and good works. Hathor is sometimes vulture-headed, and the bird is also associated with Mut, as an ideogram of her name, and she wears a vulture headdress, with Neith and Nekhebet. In Graeco-Roman mythology it is a sacred to Apollo and is the steed of Cronos/Saturn. -An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Traditional Symbols by J.C. Cooper

These works on wood panel explore the notions of home, maternity and security. The use of the vulture image as a symbol reflects its historical past and its present, personal meaning. I use the repeated vulture character as a means to make sense of my new role as a Mother, a protector, a provider. The work catalogs the surprise and mystery involved with the most powerful life changing event that is possible. These paintings chronicle love, loss, gain and the interior. It charts my experience, my process and the greatest mystery.