As the Ravens Watch: Exploring the Oracle

• Main Author: Hunter, Kathryn Lavender
• Other Authors: Leslie Koptcho
• Format: Others
• Language: en
• Published: LSU 2003
• Subjects: Art
• Online Access: http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-0609103-222622/

I believe in the process in which the artist never works alone but always in collaboration with the elements of chance. As an artist I live and work everyday collaborating with chance, from reading my cards to creating ethereal birds. As I sew pieces together, the thread becomes another element of the image by chance, stitches to lines, lines to pattern. Chance leads the birds to portraying their own personality as they are each created, ones head tilts to the right while another sits tall with dignity. This work is about the connection to the subconscious, my connection to it through what I see, people I know, games I play, what I dream. Through objects based on historical divination practices, I offer a chance for the viewer to journey inward to examine her own subconscious. This is not a declaration of the validity of these practices. Can one explain the magic of life to someone who cannot perceive it in the smallest everyday things? -Rosa Luxemborg. It is up to the viewer how these games of chance are interpreted in their own life. I search for truth. But truth to me is not constant. It moves like the phases of the moon, circling, waxing, and waning. Tomorrow may hold answers that are different than todays. I believe that we know much more than our conscious brains reveal. By connecting to the subconscious we gain access to the depths within ourselves. May the birds guide us to the next level of awareness.