By Mary A. Rowe
In this exhibition, Glen Rogers honors women and the sacred feminine in her paintings, monoprints, and drawings. Her figures radiate independence as they acknowledge the arbitrary barriers and obstacles that women encounter in their lives. In this visionary world, women hold a shared wisdom as divine creators and through ritual, reclaim ancient rites of passage. Disparaged figures from the Bible, such as Lilith and Mary Magdalene, take their power back while the Celtic-based goddess imagery of Maiden, Mother, Crone comes alive in a mural-sized charcoal drawing. Calling on the mystery of the moon to use their magic, they commune with birds, snakes, and such: symbols of the ancient goddesses.
In her early work as an artist, Rogers portrayed the female figure from a feminist perspective, in all her strength and sensuality. However, in graduate school, the female nude was seen as objectifying women and became off-limits as subject matter. Rogers’s work shifted to a symbolic approach as she began discovering early matriarchal cultures where priestesses ruled. She took pilgrimages to sites such as Newgrange in Ireland and Knossos in Crete, studying their artifacts and symbols. Her symbolic abstraction of the divine feminine can be seen in her books, “Art & Sacred Sites: Connecting with Spirit of Place,” and “Symbols of the Spirit: A Meditative Journey Through Art.”
The return to the figure in her art began while working at an artist residency in Morocco a couple of years ago. Now combining both the figure and symbols on paper and canvas, her visual vocabulary tells a story of women in their power. In “The Sacred Feminine Trilogy: Strength, Spirit, and Abundance,” three women interact in a play on the Maiden, Mother, Crone image. On the left is Strength—a young indigenous woman holds a tight fist, in defiance, a “don’t mess with me” stance. Spirals of renewal dance on her skirt and a bird, her Spirit Guide, sits on her shoulder. The central winged figure, Spirit, takes her place in front of the full moon, the most feminine of symbols. She faces us with one hand upturned to receive, the other to give back, a sacred mudra hand gesture. The Ouroboros, the snake eating its tail, an ancient symbol for renewal and the cycle of life, encircles the moon. On the right, Abundance, the young mother, pregnant with new life holds white cala lilies in front of her stomach, a symbol of fertility. She looks towards Spirit for guidance as she moves towards motherhood.
Rogers will present an artist talk on Saturday, December 18 at 4pm. The exhibition continues through December 31. Artspace hours are Thursday to Saturday, 12–5pm and by appointment. Contact: Lena Bartula, lenabartula@gmail.com or 415 111 3039.
La Huipilista Artspace, Julian Carillo 1, Colonia Guadalupe.
