Talismans

This was a special show for me. I curated it with one of my dearest friends, Kim Money for the Metchosin ArtPod. The Juror is my trusted and long time tattoo artist, and I collaborated with my sons for two very meaningful works of art. Each of my boys envisioned powerful narratives around Talismans, and I am deeply honored they made space for me to add my voice.

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The first project is "Contemplating Kaa'ang", with my son Mason Menzies, a Haida artist.

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Here's what Mason wrote:

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On a square panel sits a pair of hands painted by my mom. Underpainting brings depth to the skin tone and color to the forefront. Sitting on a dark background pulling all focus to the decision the owner of this talisman has to make.

This talisman is a concept and a behavior we have all indulged in, Gossip.

On a cedar round sits a formline design pulling from my Haida culture.

The design depicts two beings communicating and contrasting each other. With negative and positive spaces swapping places, this design was created to display how two beings can communicate so closely while also creating division and asymmetry.

Gossip is addictive, manipulative and deceiving. Through desires we’re often ashamed to say we possess, gossip has a power to separate entire families and communities.

These hands bare a juicy piece of that gossip, contemplating what action to take. Alas, gossip is often much too tempting.

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"kaa'ang" 30"x30" $1995

The second project is award winning" The Warded Man", with my son Raine Lee-Coulter, a graphic novel illustrator and writer.

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Here's what Raine wrote:

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Desperate to avoid his fate,

he slid between the realms of time and space

to watch the world forget.

About him.

About what he had done.

But in that realm between,

were hiding others who have lost their way,

who were lost from time and space.

From “eventually”.

From “once upon a time”.

He wore a set of rings,

ages he spent

inscribing words of power ,

prayers, hopes, and dreams.

On the bands inside

to press against his skin

and with time and space irrelevant,

he wrote Bible verses, histories, divine comedies,

and spell after spell after spell to protect himself.

Written in each molecule of the gold against his skin,

in an amount of time that cannot merely be calculated.

The others, lost, they worshipped his rings,

in hopes they might find their way home.

So, one by one, they stole them.

And his rings disappeared.

So he slipped away.

Another realm deeper.

Between belief and disbelief.

Where he could believe

that he forgot his past.

But the rings they took

from the warded man,

get passed from realm to realm,

and they may even surface

on your own fingers.

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The Warded Man 12"x24" $600