In the beginning there was earth. Before art supply stores existed, artists had the elements to use as their palette. We have smeared our bodies with mineral paste, erected monuments of stone, decorated shadowy caves with prehistoric markings for ritual and pleasure. Those of us living in the West often have a hunger for dirt. Cathy Aten's grandmother was a suburban shaman of sorts. She did everything "right" in the country club-cocktail party circuit. It was only when her fingernails were caked with rich earth from her vegetable garden that she was at home. Cathy learned about the perfume, texture and possibilities of well tended earth while spending time at her side. When she died, Cathy moved to New Mexico carrying a peony plant from the garden. As the hole was dug, she found herself compelled to eat some of the earth packed around the roots. This moment was the beginning of a journey into the legacy left her by a woman who knew the earth and its secrets. Cathy continues her interest in the power-of-place, ritual, healing and relationship by creating symbolic portraits-of-place. Through interview, she and her client unearth impressions of their particular place of birth, current home and travel history. Was it a place they loved or a place to leave? What of significance happened there? The client is asked to collect earth from each place as well as any small, special objects; collected or natural. These could include special rocks, shells, talisman, fetish, feather, fur. Cathy then creates her symbolic interpretation of the person through placement of the earth, objects and the occasional addition of ceramic sculptural objects. A profound renewed sense-of-place can occur through the acts of gathering, touching, and in the end, witnessing over time a finished piece hanging on the wall. In the end the earth is our foundation. The "stuff" of life falls away over time and we are left with the very elemental knowledge that we cannot live well without tending to our relationship with earth.

When Mark and I received the piece she created for us, I wrote this for her: When I think of “portrait”, what comes to mind is an image of a person’s face: an oil painting or a photograph representing the likeness of that person. Cathy has created the Essence of a portrait of my husband and me by using representations or symbols, relics, taken from our lives. She painted a portrait of our relationship using the “paint” of our garden soil and sand from our brook bed, the very ground of the place we call home. We are transfixed when we encounter this reflection of our lives together. It truly is a representation of us: a portrait of our relationship of 20 years. We see in it the colors of the bridesmaids’ dresses from our wedding, the shell picked up on a beach during a romantic getaway, a fossilized tooth discovered during a time of solitude and individual reflection in the desert, a length of gold silk, used in my weaving, which also represents the golden thread which holds us together even when we’re apart and which has something to do with how we read each others’ minds, and among other salient details, a medicine wheel which takes us back to the Indian reservation where we discovered so much about ourselves and each other, our strengths and needs, our connection to spirit. The medicine wheel is also a circular symbol for the four elements, to which we feel so connected: earth, wind, fire, water - what we’re made of and what connects us to each other, to spirit, and to our home. This portrait tells our story in a way no other representation could, and is rich in beauty, meaning and soul. A real work of art. Thank you for seeing us, Cathy.

Please contact Cathy Aten for information regarding commissioning Portraits of Place, other available work, and future exhibitions of her work.

www.cathyaten.com
sfcaten@aol.com
Phone: 505-983-7753