Fourth in the Santos series, Santa Marta Pray For Us, is worked on a piece of broken drum using yarn and beads in the beeswax matrix developed by the artist. After the first two beaded pieces were created in the Huichol manner, the artist began to use the beads in a mosaic tile style, laying them on their sides to create more reflection and a tighter format. Saint Marta (Martha) is the female equivalent of Saint George, the dragon slayer. Symbols of this icon, however, are older than Christianity and hearken back to European alchemy. The female saint does not slay her nemesis, but subdues it! The dragon here is portrayed as a jila monster created entirely of beads mirroring the color of the saint’s robes. Its eye is a fire opal and it has a smile on its face! Marta carries the censure and the torch -- the smoke and the fire of the dragon. There is no smoke in the censure. Only the flame illuminates the darkness. Held tightly to her breast is the Holy Book, the arcane knowledge she brings through the darkness. Dragons in religious iconography often have exemplified the yang nature of the sexually generative mode. The male saint must kill the dragon, the female need only subdue it. Here the saint has thrust it outside herself and sanctified it, as both saint and dragon are crowned with identical halos and a shimmering aura encircles them both in a continuous band of silver. Saint Marta wears the colors of the Virgin and subliminal thecal images are present. This icon demonstrates one way that a woman can dance with her dual nature. Saint Marta Pray For Us was hung in the Traditional Arts Show at the Stables Gallery in Taos, NM, in 1996. |
Santa Marta