“WHEN GOD WAS A WOMAN”

1980-2021

Judith F Baca, in contemplation of Merlin Stone’s When God Was A Woman –an exploration of ancient worship of the female Goddess and the subsequent suppression of women’s rites–, developed a workshop process to source ideas, record dreams, and construct imagery and content emblematic of females. As a double-sided triptych, Thirteen Women in the Volcanic Eruption and The Birth of the Vision of the Heart was brought to completion in 2021, as Baca advanced these paradigms.

Thirteen Women in the Volcanic Eruption incorporates the young women who participated in the workshop into the painting, who simultaneously represent Latina and Chicana women –and all women. Their naked bodies are shown standing in the fiery lava of the volcano, displaying the palms of their hands, and in the center –the heart–, synonymous with life. All the figures emerge from the fertility of the volcano’s ashes in a fertile paradise, like a phoenix that rises from its ashes ready for a grand ceremony.

The Birth of the Vision of the Heart is a continuation of this story: the great ceremony of a ritual, a goddess possessing vital energy, Mother Earth. She stands with her hands extending into large flowering branches, her rhizomatic feet extend into deep roots, and throughout her body, blood spreads in venous threads that connect her corporeal mass with an earthly paradise and the originating source of life; a fertile pond with the most ancient forms of life.

Ecofeminist: JUDY BACA

“On the Matriarchal Mural and Its Symbols”

CURATED BY URTEAGA DOUBLE SIDED TRIPTYCH:

“THIRTEEN WOMEN IN THE VOLCANIC ERUPTION” (SIDE 1)

ACRYLIC ON WOOD PANELS - 8 X 12 FEET

MOLAA PERMANENT COLLECTION. MUSEUM PURCHASE WITH MOLAA ACQUISITION FUND AND FUNDS PROVIDED BY THELYNNE OKON SCHOLNICK FUND

ARTIST : DAVIS BIRKS