THE LOST AND FOUND


Did you ever misplace a favorite sweater, your best swim goggles, the car keys? We all have, and the first thing we do is head back to the place we just were. If we're extremely fortunate, some kind person has left our precious belongings in the "LOST AND FOUND." 


I bring this up now because I've been calling 2020-2021 THE LOST YEARS, sometimes in jest and other times, in all seriousness. The losses of family, friends and finances suffered by so many will reverberate for all of lives, even as we know we must somehow move forward. In my own small world, my small art world in this small space in this small town, I'm grateful to have somehow survived all of it. 


Recently, while meditating on LOSS, the word FOUND kept coming up. You see, my book about huipiles was printed and published just a couple of months before we knew about Covid. I admit, I felt at a loss... what to do about all these books taking up space in my closet???? Gradually, during the lockdown, the work coming forward not only was not about huipiles... it was not about garments at all. While my studio practice continues to focus on recycle / reuse / reimagine, it's still about messages, social issues, soft rants and righteous rage.

 

Our Mother Earth suffers from having to digest too much plastic in her system, and too many forests being stripped of her trees, whether by fires or greed. What I can do is hold Her in my heart while I create works with plastic, found objects, bits and pieces of used fabric, as is my usual practice. 


THE PLASTICITY OF INNOCENCE

A GLIMPSE OF ROYAL ALCHEMY
 

CHILDREN OF THE TECHNOFOREST

Like many others I mourn not only earth changes, but also the pervasive darkness in the country I used to call home. From afar, I witness the underbelly of "The American Dream" — from immigration inequity to the loss of women's reproductive rights to outdated gun laws that turn our children's schools into halls of death. I hold these things in my heart as I vow to do whatever I can to make a change. This is what I have FOUND, rather than continue to think that all is LOST. May you find peace in this, and also be encouraged to continue mending our broken world, in whatever way you know how. 

THE DARKNESS WE REJECT


THE CONSTANCY OF OUR MENDING

 AN INFINITY OF CHOICES

Comments

Karen said…
The "Constancy of our Mending" speaks to me in some powerful way that has rarely visited me in my practical life as a nurse, farmer, Virgo. The first time I was aware of it was around 1995 in the University of British Columbia's Museum of Anthropology in Vancouver. The different masks from the northern British Columbia First Nations people produced different and palpable emotions that I've never forgotten. This piece by you, Lena produces a similar intensity of feeling, one that surprises and delights me. Thank you. I hope I can see this piece in person when I come down in January. Karen
June 6, 2022 at 10:52 PM
Lena Bartula said…
Thank you for sharing your response to that piece, Karen. There is so much in our world that needs our mending, literally and metaphorically. I appreciate that you can see it and feel it. Let me know in what part of January you'll be here, I hope it's towards the end of the month. I just got a gig in Oaxaca that will keep me there from the 9th to the 22nd.
September 1, 2022 at 12:52 PM
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