The Goddess Project
“…in the end, Goddess is just a word. It simply means the
divine in female form.”
Sue Monk Kidd
By goddess we mean a psychological description of a complex female type that we intuitively recognize in ourselves and in the women around us. Dating to prehistory, our unconscious minds draw upon a common pool of understandings about females - these have been and are now expressed in art, literature, and other forms of expression and are referred to as archetypes.
Throughout centuries and cultures, the Great Goddess has had many names, has borne many faces and countless children. She has been worshipped as a supreme being—in present-day Nepal, certain prepubescent girls are identified as living goddesses—or delegated to home and hearth in patriarchal cultures and religions, sometimes mocked, persecuted, or executed, condemned for witchcraft, or labeled as a hag or a witch in her old age. Still, she is powerful. There has been a shifting attitude in the modern era to acknowledge and revere her within oneself and in others.
The four artists collaborated in the Project to portray the Great Goddess in her progress through life. Long associated with planet Earth (‘erda’ an Anglo-Saxon word meaning ground or soil) as the embodiment of fertility, nurturance, and strength, we show her in several ages and roles. There is the Babe in the earliest phase and a conclusion with the Crone, crowned with silver hair and great wisdom. The intervening depictions are the Child, the Maiden, the Seeker, the Mother, the Warrior, and the Matriarch. Our multiple representations are comprised of headdresses, wet plate collodion portraits, paintings, and photographic images of the natural world which is the Goddess’s realm. Each artist has imbued their representations with symbolism, mystery, and intention.
- Pat Brown
In my portfolio folder are the wet collodion portraits of the Goddess from baby
to crone for our exhibition in 2022.