Unearthing Ancient Art

White plaster mask from the 1980s with random  patterns of red, purple, pink and blue

As I purge and pack I keep coming across old art. Maybe not ancient art but it feels "ancient" in the saga of my life. Apparently masks have been part of my art  for a long time. The above mask was created as part of a mask making class I led at camp around 1980 probably. This was my curvy meets pointy  asymmetric period of playful decorating.

Clay mask from high school or maybe Jr. High - Lovely rich dark ocher yellow with cut out mouth and eyes and raised lips, tear drops and a lumpy nose

In high school and even before HS ceramics were my fave so I went through a sculptured face phase. I remember feeling influenced by the court jester's and medieval masks that were popular at Renaissance Fairs.

Another plaster mask created at camp in Mendocino in the 1980sanother random pink and blue almost symmetric pattern

These are the only mask that survived but there were many more over the years. As I keep throwing things away in my move I wonder, is it time to let this earlier art go? I had this sculpture teacher many years ago who gave us one huge lump of clay for the whole summer. He wanted us to create art take pic and then destroy our creations and reuse the clay. He said if we were going to be artist we needed to detach from our products because it is about creating not the creation itself. 

Well I always wanted to be an anthropologist and keeping such things is important to the fossil record of an artistic evolution.

Even today I still am drawn to the significance of mask. 

M. Butterfly - a beautiful woman in a green kimono with blue butterfly wings and a yellow headdress with a feminine and masculine kabuki mask in the background.

Fragile beauty sometimes in front of the mask and sometimes hidden behind it. Transformation takes many forms.