marlene mountain
painting series 17
letter notes/after the show
october 4 1988

 

the great mad mother earths plus a glad

Wow, the gathering at the Mad Earths plus a Glad was a wonderful experience. I was so uptight for a number of reasons, not the least of which was worrying about reading 'shetrillogy,' that I didn't fully appreciate what happened until it was over. About 25 stayed for the reading--and such a great group. I told everyone that I felt we were all female--like nature. During 'owom' and 'maytreearchy' there was much laughter and I had to stop a lot for it (they were reading along from copies)--but when eartha began speaking about what had been done to her, there was absolute silence (except for me) and all the way through 'womocreativa.' It was uncanny. Afterwards, they were so moved that several women and a man wanted to read aloud from the latter. Then we talked about language, the ubiquitous patriarchy, dualism, femaleness, and all sorts of stuff. I've had real good responses to my shows, but nothing like this. It was a spiritual experience--for them, and later for me when I finally unwound. To me it means that there is a deep need to find/acknowledge the femaleness we've all just about lost. The next morning two good male friends and I continued our Monday morning discussions of the above. We always get into the Indo/European section of the dictionary to find the origins of words. This time into THE WOMAN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA OF MYTHS AND SECRETS by Barbara Walker. You gotta give yourself this book!

 

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