Turtle Dreams: A History of Love and Magic is an ongoing body of creative work that includes art, writing, and poetry. It follows a family of magical women artists and storytellers — matrilineal-ly through the generations — who are the memory keepers of “tales of love without end.”
“Do not be satisfied with the stories that came before you. Unfold your own myth.” Rumi
Turtle Dreams: A History of Love & Magic ismyown myth.
In 2019 I began writing a story I could not get out of my head. It started showing up in my art and poetry. Movement and music could unleash a flow of new story ideas and inspiration.
I was baffled. Where did this story come from? I did not know. I did know it wanted to be told.
In the end, I decided to succumb to the enchantment.
Turtle Dreams: A History of Love & Magic is an ongoing body of creative work — including visual art in a variety of media, writing, poetry, music, and movement — all working co-creatively to accomplish one thing: to tell a good story.
The story begins at the beginning — at creation — with the tumultuous birth of all flora and fauna of land, sea, and sky from the womb of the great mother whale.
A divine being, who takes the form of a sea turtle in water and a woman on land, makes her entrance at the dawn of time also.
From there, the story follows a family of women artists and storytellers — matrilineal-ly through the generations — who are the memory keepers of “tales of love without end.”
The protagonist, Mariela — one of these magical women — is a modern woman at cross-roads, carrying the weight of generations of her maternal legacy, knowing she will fail; despairing that it will all end with her — unless?
Conceptually, and through a feminist lens, Turtle Dreams is an exploration of both the life-giving and destructive power of romantic love, the complex emotional bond between mother and daughter, and the vital role of stories to humanity.
The first exhibition of some of the creative work for the story will take place at Rogue Gallery and Art Center Dec. 8, 2023, through Jan. 12, 2024. Opening Reception Dec. 8, 2023, 5:30 – 8:00 PM.
You meet Mariela – muse and protagonist, the great mother whale, and the remarkable turtle. Fiber art pieces depict a fantastical undersea garden bursting to life at the dawn of time. Paper quilt collages, knotting, and embroidery reinforce the power of work with a needle and thread (often disparagingly referred to as “women’s work”) to tell critical stories and give a “voice” to creative women who have historically been silenced and ignored.
Heartbreak, obsession, annihilation, desire, magic, mystery, rebirth, and yearning are all represented!
Writer Anais Nin said she could not live in any of the worlds offered to her. She wrote, “I had to create a world of my own, like a climate, a country, an atmosphere in which I could breathe, reign and recreate myself when destroyed by living.”
Closer to the end of my life than to the beginning, I too have felt disappointed and, at times, crushed by life – particularly as a woman in a patriarchal world.
Maybe I am being given the chance to create some things more to my liking. Maybe Turtle Dreams is my chance to create a world where I can breathe also.
