Journal Entry for Sketch #3
March 29th: 20 Days After Start of U.S./Iraq War
March 29th: 20 Days After Start of U.S./Iraq War
This is my third visit to the cemetery. I am still trying to find ways to locate those who died in war. I have not yet started journaling. Initially I am drawn to research war dead through cemetery records but not sure where to find them.
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12 thoughts on “Rosecrans 3: The Loudness of Silence/What Has Been Taken From Women”
Both of the women seem to be pregnant, especially the one in the tree. It’s interesting that the woman with the cross over her head is also naked. Perhaps she is a priestess. At first I thought the woman in the tree had climbed up to look over the wall (a symbol of conflict, fear, and mistrust), then I thought maybe she was about to throw herself onto the jagged rocks below. The tree seems to be supporting her arms with leaves cupped to the sky like her hand. The woman in front seems to be telling the story of what is happening, either as a reporter, protester, or spokesperson, I’m not sure. The tree is very frail and poorly rooted. “What Has Been Taken From Women” keeps running through my head. “Desperately to the Tree” “Refusing to Give Birth”
“The Goddess Tree”
I really like the name: “What Has Been Taken From Women”, although I think I would change it to “Woman”. This name fits also with the fact that the goddess figure has not hands. To me this is about marginalizing our intuitive connection with the world.
Women are the “fruit bearer’s” and become the trees of life. The Christian woman is dismembered and dead the other woman is tangled up and may be dying it looks as if there is fire beneath her. The horror and entangled drama of war. No one is safe not even the “Trees of Life”
Ilike the notion of a tree of life but this plant looks more like a vine to me than a tree. Also, the woman standing in the vine seems to be pointing the way to something new; while the woman on the ground seems to be mutililated by war (no hands and here arms balance pecariously on her shoulders.
To me this is a symbol of the women who have been left behind. The one with broken arms has lost her son/father/husband. The one with the “vines” has just said goodby to her son/father/husband. I would title this one “TAKEN AWAY”
“We All Return to Gaia”? or W.A.R. – Gaia
These title suggestions were submitted in writing by persons attending the Rosecrans Exhibit at the Louden Community Center in Santa Cruz, CA by Irene:
Mother Earth Crying
You Know Me
Another title suggested at the Santa Cruz show:
No Name: Eve After Adam Wet to War
“Hope” This one has an obvious fertility motif. The second smaller female figure seems to be bound up in a tree (tree of life?) and has a golden band around her neck/head, maybe symbolizing a ray of hope for mankind.
The pregnant figure wears a crown with a cross symbolizing the power of ancient corporations now bloated and the younger figure being born from a tree of life heralds a new age of hope. There is a question – Can the hope of the young become our saviour without turning into the broken and bloated leaders of the past?
“The Loudness of Silence” contributed by Maile Griego at the 2017 Open Studios Santa Cruz, CA