Lauren Raine Studios

readsofspiderwoman.blogspot.com

I’ve always seen masks as "vessels for our stories", and I love to make custom masks for storytellers and celebrants! In 1999 I made 30 "Masks of the Goddess" based upon multi-cultural stories of the Divine Feminine. As I researched world mythology, I found myself in a grand conversation that grew as dancers, storytellers, and communities used the masks, filling them with new meaning. The Collection traveled for almost 20 years. I myself have presented at the Glastonbury Goddess Conference in the U.K., the Women and Mythology Association, the Kripalu Institute, Friends of Jung, the Goddess Spirit Rising Conference, and in 2015 the collection was at the Parliament of World Religions. By exploring myth in contemporary ways we activate ancient taproots that can sustain us into the future, and my own "mythic roots" also happen in ceramic sculpture, painting and my "RAINBOW BRIDGE" Tarot Deck (www.rainbowbridgeoracle.weebly.com) . And because I live in the Southwest, I’ve been inspired by myths of the native American Creatrix, SPIDER WOMEN. Dow Fellowship at Northwood University to develop a Community Arts Project based on the "Legend of the Spider Woman" at the Midland Center for the Arts, which was also shown at the Creative Spirit Center in Midland, and in 2009 I further developed the project as resident artist at the Henry Luce III Center for the Arts in Washington, D.C. I love to hear from Fellow Weavers, and invite students to workshops, as well as commissions for masks.