ALTARS! Accidental and Intentional

5th of 30 blogs

 After yesterday's Pity Party, I decided to do a celebration of altars. Some were probably intended to be artistic arrangements or, as Apartment Therapy calls them, "vignettes". But somehow they look like altars to me. 

Dont' forget to click on the pictures to enlarge them and see the details. Especially the collages!!

This first one is in my kitchen on a shelf at eye level and is a celebration of RED and "accidentally" contains things significant to me: a Betsy McCall doll, a tiny pitcher from my trip to New Orleans, an apple shaped pepper grinder from my Greek girl cousin, a Kitchen Aide mixer for my delusion that I'm still a prolific baker and an old salt cellar from my childhood. 

Perfect kitchen altar, and I think Hestia loves it!

 These below are a collection of the altars I made or found in my California life: Another celebration of red in the room my friends called my Opium Den because of the colors I used. Notice the hand. I LOVE hands!
The Hannukah altar was when Hannukah was in the fall, so I had leaves, pumpkins and a fall imp right in my entry and I loved being greeted by that seasonal celebration.
Up top is an altar to...my still living father? He loves tall ships and these are two store bought models of two that he made and still has in his house. The owl reminded me of his owl collection and I wish that were the only owl I have bought, but no. I've recreated this collection in my current home.
To the right is the first intentional altar I tried to make, but since it was in the morning sun's path, Putt Putt decided he needed to be part of it. Somehow, his presence MADE that altar for me.
In the right lower corner is a real altar I spotted in a grocery store run by Tibetans. It was high up and not noticeable unless you're tuned to high altar places like I am.

 Below here is a collection of 3 of the many "vignettes" arranged by an old friend I visited. She and her husband were walking the grounds of a cabin they were interested in buying, and they found a heart shaped rock. Seeing this as a sign, they bought it and heart shaped rocks show up daily. They have them everywhere, including in boxes for guests to choose from. The picture in the lower left corner is just one of her many collections of perfectly arranged things, including hearts made of things other than rock. Staying in that cabin felt like staying in a forest temple

 These below were my attempts in my first Minnesota apartment AFTER the disastrous relationship was finally over. Top left are my favorite cups: the heavy pottery teacup has a peacock feather sent by a friend who wrote a book and put a whole paragraph about me in her acknowledgments. The Lenox Greek key coffee cup is part of the set I grew up with, the initials are mine (made from photos of objects that look like letters) and the picture is one I won the first day I was in CA after running from that bad relationship. The altar on the right was another seasonal altar to fall, including the one painting of Shiloh's that I own.

 This collage below posted out of order, but I'm tired of arguing with computers, so here it is where the Mighty Computer placed it. I created it when I first started painting in a Shiloh course a year after I bought her painting. I have an incense burner with Ganesh on it (it's the bottle) and the incense stick holder has the word "Journey" on it. There is another couple of hands, a Kwan Yin, a goblet and a postcard made in the Art for Healing Center I found in Bakersfield that became my church for the 3 months I was there.  I placed it in the dining room where I first started painting.
The SF cup is what I still use for my painting "holy water" and I don't wash it completely. Love the juju leftover from former paintings.

 This is what my hostess in the Forest Heart Cabin created for the guest room while I was there. A 3 story altar to our shared childhood, with additional things just for me. Notice the SF cable car! I felt loved.

Can't help it. I love Big Boys and Buddha does too. They live in my kitchens always. 

  First night of Hannukah on my altar to Ganesh and Sarasvati. This is in the center of my new home and brings me peace and joy whenever I walk past. It's in my art studio and that seems perfect too. 
Here are two of my mother's vignettes/altars. One with one of her own paintings and carefully chosen (dare I say "curated"?) things on shelves. And the GIGANTIC pictures of her parents and grandmother with a Mary statue and embroidery from Greece. Yes, she chose that color for her bedroom. Isn't she marvelous?

Lest you wonder if I only made an altar to my father, here's the one to my mother and her/our heritage. There's a map of Greece made in the 1800s, a picture of my great grandfather with my great uncle in classic Greek soldier garb which was forbidden during the Turkish rule of Greece. Note the Turkish style of clothing my great grandfather is wearing. The big Greek soldier doll is about 60 years old now and was given to me by my grandparents from their one and ONLY trip back home. There's a photo of my grandparents with my great grandmother, one of my beautiful mother dressed for a formal dance, and two pictures of my grandfather's village. One my mother took in the 1970s and one was taken by me in the 1980s. Nothing had changed. Probably not in 500 years or more! Then there are the little cafethaki cups for GREEK coffee with two little soldiers standing in them. And a piece of altar bread from my mother's church.

Last, but not least at all is my very very very first painting, which I painted in Shiloh Sophia's Legendary Life class. This helped heal the damage from that horrendous relationship and it's called She Dreams With Her Eyes Open. I was just waking up from my trance of doing/being whatever my partner(s) wanted me to be or do. My higher self was just opening her eyes and seeing the Spirit of Joy hiding under a hill. The sun was sleeping in the trees and golden spirit animal guides were in or around the lake. Stars fall from the sky and my healing began as I created this.

This painting moves around my apartment to wherever I need Her to be so that I never forget my long overdue awakening. Not quite an altar. Not quite an icon. But a window into a part of my soul that had been sleeping far too long.
I'll end with a line drawing I did recently that sums all that up and that surprised me.

Not an altar. But the result of finding my way back home.