Ceremony at the Rain Gates

townsley_jesse_1

 

Ceremony at the Rain Gates
2016
12 x 9.25 x 8.5 inches
Synthetic clay, wood, stones, texture gel, Strathmore 400 drawing paper, glue, acrylic paint, varnish

The rain symbols of the ancient Hopi (sometimes called the Moki) all seem to consist of various numbers of curved lines on a straight horizontal line with shorter perpendicular lines at the bottom of the symbol. In other words, they depict clouds and rain.

The inside of the piece was inspired by a microscope photo of pond water posted on flickr.com by Holly Varah. The reliefed abstract painting on the front started out with a photo I shot of raindrops on a tent and then went off into expressionist dreamtime.