Voices of Reconciliation and Peace: Masaru Tanaka and Betsie Miller-Kusz

In August of 2013, Creation Migration painter Betsie Miller-Kusz, and Japanese photographer, Masaru Tanaka, brought their 14 year collaboration, "Peace's New Century Project", to New Mexico.  Because of their shared hopes for the future of a peaceful world, and their personal associations with the atomic attack on Japan, the artists have been collaborating to make images that transcend past disparities between the two countries and open the way for dialogue.

Miller-Kusz's father, as a young graduate student, worked on the Manhattan project and Betsie, now from the Jemez Valley, spent her early months living in Los Alamos. Masaru Tanaka is from Hiroshima Japan. His father, at the age of four, was burned when the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. When these two artists met in San Francisco in 1999, they knew immediately they had to collaborate in making images intended to heal this huge divide.

The images they create are collages of Masaru's photographs and Betsie's Earth-protecting spirit.  They elicit in the viewer responses of tranquility and transcendence. The works have been shown in Asia and the United States in venues such as the War Memorial Building in San Francisco, the Mirasaka Peace Museum in Hiroshima and at the United Nations in New York. Finally, after years of legwork, they have made their way to Los Alamos.

The exhibit, shown first in Jemez Springs, was greeted with reverence and respect, with the public participating in a ceremony and memorial alter. On August 6, 2013, at the historic Fuller Lodge exhibit in Los Alamos, contributors from various religious, community and cultural participants expanded the ceremonial aspect of the exhibit into an emotional and transformational experience. In addition to the main exhibit, a special gallery was reserved for the pieces created in Betsie's workshop with local high school students. The students, as representatives of the next generation in Los Alamos, created incredible artworks and poems which speak of great hope for the future.

High School participants with cellist, Jami Seiber and ceremonialist, Jae Agu

 Also from the Creation Migration group, artist Belinda Edwards was largely responsible for organizing the moving opening ceremony. Origami cranes, the world wide symbol of peace, were found throughout the gallery. Participants included both the artists, representatives of international backgrounds and musical tradition, of Native American traditions, of Christian, Hebrew, Buddhist, Islamic and non denominational religions, and artists and poets from Los Alamos High School. This universal group joined in adding to the ceremonial alter and a silent procession carrying candles of peace.

Artists (above, left) Masaru and Betsie.          Below, Masaru's family

An interview with Betsie Miller-Kusz, Belinda Edwards, and ceremony participant Rabbi Jack Shlachter was recorded for you-tube by Santa Fe personality Reverend Phil. This is part of his series about modern day prophets titled "Words of the Prophets".  The video captures the deep respect for peace and love of humanity intended by the Peace's New Century Project.
Please view the entire video at this web address: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHMaoh-rJu8&feature=youtu.be

Tsosie Visits Ground Zero

9/11 AND THE NECESSITY OF ART

I remember exactly where I was and what I was doing when 9/11 happened.  I was living in a rural area in northern New Mexico off the highway leading to Los Alamos.  I had a small studio, a concrete block building with a cement floor.  It was the first actual studio I ever owned.  I didn't have a television.  Well, I had one, but it was in the closet.  I never cared much for tv, and anyway, the reception wasn't great where I was living.  So I heard about the trade center towers on the radio that I turned on every time that I went into the studio.  The announcer was detailing how terrified women were kicking off their high heeled shoes so they could run faster away from the collapsing towers.  What a powerful image. When I came home from work that evening I gathered up all my high heeled shoes and threw them on the studio floor and painted them.  The dark towers were in the background, dust and debris rising between them. I had never completed a painting so quickly.

"Vanished", acrylic on canvas, 2002, 20x20

I entered it into a juried show in Las Cruces and my husband and I drove there for the opening.  I didn't wear a name tag.  I wanted to be anonymous.  I wanted to watch the reactions of the viewers.  I got what I came for when a woman looked at the painting, read the title, clutched her throat and gasped. Then we went home.

Fast forward twelve years and I am going to another opening, this one in New York. My twelve year old grandson and his mother (my daughter) are going too.

Erica and Nicholas

I am there for the museums and the galleries, but he wants to see: Ripley's Believe it or Not; the Blue Man Group; the Empire State Building; the Statue of Liberty; and yes, the World Trade Center Memorial (I'm amazed that he knows about 9/11.)  Being a good grandmother, I accommodate most of his list, knowing I can see the museums and galleries after he leaves.   I skip the Empire State Building. I don't like heights.

I am unprepared for the World Trade Center experience.

We thread our way through long lines, several security checks, and then enter a large park with many people. Very quiet people.  There are two pools. a north and a south pool (the tower footprints?)  Water cascades over the sides and disappears into a black hole, just as the victims had.

South Pool, World Trade Center Memorial, 2013

In front of the south pool stands a group of uniformed Swiss firefighters, silently paying their respects to their fallen comrades.  In the background is a slanted museum building which will open in 2014.

Swiss firefighters

 

 

 

 

 Growing in a special place within the park is the "Survivor Tree".  The tree had been near ground zero and was badly decimated by the falling debris.  A local nurseryman rescued it and nursed it back to health, only to have it fall victim to a vicious storm later on.  It survived a second time.  People line up to stroke it.

Daughter Kathy and The Survivor Tree

 

I'm not a particularly sentimental or patriotic person, but I am deeply moved by this experience. I think of the artist's mind, which understood metaphor so well; the respect the artist held for those who would view the work; the collaboration that occurred with the engineers and the builders.

Tsosie on Brooklyn Bridge; financial district in background

I came away with renewed appreciation for all of us who call ourselves artists and attempt to memorialize the the human experience, the spiritual aspects of our lives.  Painting is not dead and art is just as necessary as it always was and always will be.

New World Trade Center

Faces of Personal "Herstory": A Collaboration

During much of this summer (2013) the Creation/Migration project has exhibited a shared art piece that lends itself well to the discussion of process in the development of collaborative artworks. The exhibit has been at the Esther Bone Library Gallery in Rio Rancho, NM. During the planning phases we knew we would be presenting the exhibit in a library setting.



In consideration of the tradition of historic figures being seen in libraries in the format of cast busts on pedestals, we decided to repeat the essence of this idea.  Each of the four artists in our group created a personage that is representative of some part of her Creation/Migration story.  Besides being thematically tied together, that connection was enhanced by having each persona also represent one of the ancient elements: Earth, Air, Fire and Water.

In the above photograph, on the far left in the grouping, is Harriette Tsosie's piece, "A Secret".  The cat has multiple meanings for Harriette as evidenced by the CAT symbols in her life, from Harriette's love of cats, to her love of a very particular CAT, and, by the way, note the catty expression on Harriette's cast face!

The simulated bronze finish is created through the expression of FIRE, as are the cast bronze figures of tradition.  Harriette's medium of encaustic paint utilizes the heat-melted wax to produce her surface effects and coloration, bringing the transformative affect of fire to each piece.

The WATER element (second from left) is brought to life in Belinda Edward's depiction of her ancestral figure. This woman speaks of the essence of her long journey from Africa. Her skin is reminiscent of underwater ripples, of whale or seal hide, of fishing nets; covered with shells and barnacles and clothing that seems more like delicate translucent jelly fish or kelp flowers, bringing the true essence of the ancient wisdom of the ocean's secrets.

And more secrets are held in the shell-studded medicine bag that dangles from her neck and the wand of life-giving messages from the nestings of sea birds, as though carried on the winds of the sea.

Perchta of the Alpine Forest (third from left) is Donna Caulton's tribute to her ancestry and to the EARTH element. Although her bearing is regal as the pagan goddess she represents, she is  revered and feared and as earthy as a goddess can be.

Donna has many Berthas in her German matrilineal line, but the namesake is unknown.  Perchta (an ancient name from which Bertha was derived), then, became Caulton's chosen namesake to represent the earth elements of her female ancestry.

Perchta has many faces, but the one depicted here is the goddess of weaving and guardian of the beasts. She was known to wander through the winter forests, always with spindle in hand, always watchful of the safety of the herd animals (and little children).  People were careful to leave food out for her on the cold winter nights, staying in her good graces, never willing to risk her fearful dark side, one that all pagan gods and goddesses were known to possess.

On the far right is Betsie Miller-
Kusz representation of her far matrilineal roots in Ethiopa and her near self in the Jemez Mountains of northern New Mexico.  Both are grounded in and born of earth, but carried into the present on the AIR; a seed landing here, taking root; landing there, taking root; finding herself on the path of the true sojourner.

It is a rare month that goes by that does not find Betsie in an airplane, making a landing  at one of her many points of transformation.



Each artist in this project is strongly grounded in the EARTH element.  Each of the four, however, has varying depths in the other three ancient elements; fire, water and air. Perhaps it is the earth element that allows this group to function so well within the collaborative process?

Please join us as we explore this question, among others, as panel presenters at the 2013 EncaustiCon conference this November (2013) in Santa Fe, NM.
http://www.encausticon.com/presenters

Harriette Tsosie Brings Her Interpretation of Water to East End Arts in NYC

East End Arts is presenting its second annual juried exhibit, H2O.
The jurors for this national exhibition are Peter Marcelle and Bruce Helander.
The show runs August 9 through September 27, 2013.

Harriette is exhibiting her encaustic piece, "Blessed Rain", a mixed media piece with encaustic, wax and dye.  She will be at the opening reception Friday, October 9 from 5-7.  In addition to taking part in this national exhibition, Harriette has imbued a  a prayerful attitude into her recent rain paintings, in hopes of rain for her her beloved northern New Mexico, where a three year drought is seemingly coming to an end.