These days I find it hard to write – I feel plagued with negativity, and the news and violence and overall hateful actions of others have weighed deeply on my soul. While I personally am ready to celebrate a milestone… Read More ›
Art
Self-Care is a Feminist Issue: Holy Women Icons Project’s 7-Day Online Self-Care Retreat by Rev. Dr. Angela Yarber
Several years ago, I was pastor of a welcoming and affirming church. As a queer clergywoman, I thought that such a place would be the perfect place to flourish and thrive as a pastor. And yet, because of heterosexist and… Read More ›
Lektrima by 2 Worlds
Lek Trima is a portfolio of photographs expressing reverence for feminine energy. I had doubts as to whether I should create around this topic, I’m not a scholar, subject expert, or woman, but during flailing phases of the project I… Read More ›
Who is She? an excerpt (edited for brevity) from the 25th anniversary edition of The Return of the Goddess, A Divine Comedy by Elizabeth Cunningham
Introduction by Maeve: Elizabeth’s July post usually features an excerpt from my Chronicles in honor of my feast day, July 22. This year the excerpt comes from the novel that opened the way for my story. Ever since a playdough… Read More ›
Mulling over Movies: Moana, Pt. 2 by Elise M. Edwards
Every summer in the US, movie theatres show their newest big budget films, hoping to draw in large audiences. While I appreciate an air-conditioned theatre on a hot day, I love the opportunity to go to an outdoor movie screening…. Read More ›
Holy Women Icons Online Retreats by Angela Yarber
I’ve shared before that the non-profit my wife and I created, the Holy Women Icons Project, is in the process of creating a small intersectionally ecofeminist retreat center on Hawai’i Island. The Holy Women Icons Project seeks to empower marginalized… Read More ›
Painting, Privilege, and “Going Tiny” in Hawai’i by Angela Yarber
It started with Pelé, the Hawai’ian Volcano Goddess who governs fire, lightning, volcanoes, and the flow of lava. When my little family set off on a big adventure in June 2015, I knew I’d research and paint her as a… Read More ›
Mulling over Movies: Moana, Pt. 1 by Elise M. Edwards
I love going to outdoor movie screenings. Sitting outdoors on a summer evening with good company brings me joy. Last week, I went to an screening of Moana, the Disney movie about a teenager who goes on a quest through… Read More ›
Painting Our Lady of Sorrows: Mother’s Day and Resurrection by Angela Yarber
The month of May finds those within the Christian tradition solidly within Easter season, reveling in the promise of resurrection, while simultaneously celebrating Mother’s Day. To be honest, I’d never seen much of a correlation between these two events in… Read More ›
Public Art and Personal Transformation by Jessica Bowman
Public Art Sculptures Borrego Springs, CA Artist: Ricardo Breceda Photo: Jessica Bowman Public Art displays like the image above, a dragon that appears to be moving through the sand dunes of Borrego Springs, California offer tremendous insight into… Read More ›
The Nature of Communal Pondering by Elise M. Edwards
Last week, I listened to an episode of Krista Tippett’s series On Being that featured an interview with poet Marilyn Nelson. I am not very knowledgeable about the world of modern poetry, but I am familiar with Nelson’s work. A… Read More ›
Painting a Goddess of Grief by Angela Yarber
In many ways, I’ve thought of the myriad Holy Women Icons I’ve painted as mediators, guides who accompany us, women who have shown us the way. Whether they enliven us to create, inspire us to sustain, or embolden us to… Read More ›
Coming in the Back Door by Jessica Bowman
“I’m not ready to make nice I’m not ready to back down I’m still mad as hell, and I don’t have time To go ’round and ’round and ’round It’s too late to make it right I probably wouldn’t if… Read More ›
Join the Rebellion by Jessica Bowman
Like many other thousands of Americans, I watched the newest offering from the Star Wars legacy last autumn and was re-inspired to be an active part of the rebellion against oppression. Viewing the movie through my feminist lens I was… Read More ›
Painting the Mother of Exiles by Angela Yarber
Last month, my column focused on the importance of intersectionality within the feminist movement by highlighting the revolutionary work of Sojourner Truth, an escaped slave, abolitionist, and women’s rights activist. I’d like to continue to press the importance of intersectionality,… Read More ›
The Need for Intersectionality: Repainting Sojourner Truth by AngelaYarber
I’ve long held that feminism, in order to be true and engaged and practical, must be intersectional. Such is also the case, I believe, for LGBTQ rights. The work of justice for women and LGBTQs people must also include justice… Read More ›
Painting Lilith, Queering Lilith by Angela Yarber
Lilith has been a misunderstood, appropriated, and redeemed woman throughout the ages. Many feminists claim her as an empowering figure in Jewish mythology, her story reclaimed by contemporary artists such as Sarah McLachlan, who created the all-women music tour, “Lilith… Read More ›
“Tricolor Mary: Encountering Three Faces of the Divine Feminine” by Simone Grace Seol
I always felt curiously distant from the figure of Mary. I always sensed that there is so much there and yet, I could never connect to it emotionally. The foil to Eve, vessel of Love, suffering mother. I wanted to… Read More ›
Painting Our Lady of Light: Winter Holidays 2016 by Angela Yarber
There’s nothing like the holiday season to bring out everyone’s least feminist self. In one of the courses that I teach—Gender, Food, and the Body in Popular Culture—students are assigned to examine gender roles throughout the holiday season through the… Read More ›
Shared Leadership: The Hidden Treasure of Women’s Ritual Dance by Laura Shannon
Traditional women’s dances of Greece, the Balkans and the Near East come from cultures which have survived countless periods of upheaval, and teach skills which can help us through difficult times. I see their gifts as a precious inheritance from the ancestors,… Read More ›
Nominating Holy Women Icons by Angela Yarber
Who is your Holy Woman Icon? When I began the academic study of religion in 1999, I was struck by the pantheon of male saints, venerated, honored, painted, adored, perhaps even worshipped. From virtually every tradition, men reigned supreme—in leadership,… Read More ›
Weaving and Spinning Women: Witches and Pagans by Max Dashu: Reviewed by Carol P. Christ
Max Dashu’s Witches and Pagans: Women in European Folk Religion 700-1000 challenges the assumption that Europe was fully Christianized within a few short centuries as traditional historians tell us. Most of us were taught not only that Europe became Christian… Read More ›
Calling on the Muse: A Meditation for Creative Spirits by Mary Sharratt
The world at large might view artists and writers as free spirits rocking la vie bohème, but creative people know that it’s much more complicated than that, especially if we’re striving to earn even a modest living from our work…. Read More ›
In Search of Ancestral Wisdom by Max Dashu
What is the preserving shrine? Níansa (not hard). The preserving shrine is memory and what is preserved in it. What is the preserving shrine? Níansa. The preserving shrine is Nature and what is preserved in it. —Senchas Mór, Ireland In… Read More ›
Dandelion Warriors, Incest Survival and An Artist Statement on That Christmas Morning Feeling by Marie Cartier
I have blogged excerpts from my novel That Christmas Morning Feeling in progress previously—the first excerpt here and additional ones here and here. This blog serves as an “artist statement” regarding the novel in progress. I want to discuss in… Read More ›
Power & Restraint: A Feminist Perspective on Mormon Sisterhood: A sculpture series by Page Turner, presented by David Volodzko
History offers few instances of women helping create scripture. Hinduism’s sacred Rigveda may have been partly composed by women, and scholars believe the biblical Book of Ruth was possibly written by a woman, but the evidence for each is wanting…. Read More ›
Storied Women by Natalie Weaver
One of my goals for the summer is to paint more. I find I can often say or think by a picture something that I am trying to work through in a formal, discursive way. Art functions as a methodological… Read More ›
What Dorothee Soelle Taught Me about Creativity by Elise M. Edwards
I’m currently developing a book that considers how theological and ethical considerations in architectural design can define good architecture. My book discusses five virtues related to the architectural design process that promote human participation in bringing out God’s intention of flourishing… Read More ›
Holy Women Icons Contemplative Coloring Book by Angela Yarber
Around the time Microaggressions in Ministry: Confronting the Violence of Everyday Church was published, I was under contract and furiously trying to finish yet another book project, a coloring book of all things. On the heels of such imperative justice… Read More ›
I Used to Paint All the Time by Natalie Weaver
I used to paint and draw all the time as a child. I thought about majoring in art as a college student, but I went to an institution that did not have any applied arts courses in the curriculum. I… Read More ›
