Teaching Everyday Alchemy to Juilliard Graduate Florence Paget in San Juan Bautista (California) with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Teaching Everyday Alchemy to Juilliard Graduate Florence Paget in San Juan Bautista (California) with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

One day I received an invitation to attend an exhibit opening, lecture, and poem readings by artist Marsha Connell at the Galeria Tonantzin in San Juan Bautista, California and decided to take my young daughter Florence along.  Connell was working in collage at the time, which I thought might interest a young girl.

When we arrived, we admired the collages, which were devoted to various goddesses representing the sacred feminine.  We sipped glasses of orange juice amongst the wine drinkers around us.  I thought it was hard to deal with the sacred feminine when you are limited to photographs of models from fashion magazines.  Connell worked around this constraint by using travel photos as counterpoints and supplements to fashion magazine photos. 

“The travel photos are antidotes,” I thought to myself.

The gallery manager invited us to take seats and the lecture began on the alchemy of creation.  Connell talked about how she made new combinations of ordinary objects such as photos to create art objects.  She said she used this method for collage as well as poetry. 

She said she looks at the world around her and wrote poetry about the sacred feminine.  You have to know a little bit about California to understand the sacred feminine, especially if you have only been exposed to American feminist thought and interpretations of art.  When I arrived in California I quickly learned that you are either a feminist or goddess here.  I would add alchemist or poet to that selection of choices, too.

The sacred feminine is religious, taking in all faiths of women.  Religious women contrary to what many people think are well educated and teach children to read and do arithmetic.  They practice and perpetuate many art forms that the non-religious pay top dollar for in galleries.  Many poets in California have been inspired by the artistry of religious women and trace its origins back to the origins of time to goddess worship or the era when god when was a woman.  Both Marija Gimbutas and Elinor Gadon have researched and written about the sacred feminine for further research.

Connell read her poems about the sacred feminine and feminine strength to grand applause.  I thought to myself, “You have to be strong to cook every night after work.”  I agreed with her wholeheartedly about feminine strength.

After the lecture, I showed Florence one of the collages I liked.

“Miss Connell put the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus in this collage,” I remarked.

“Artemis is the goddess, who loves wilderness,” Florence said.

I laughed at how her vegetarian Waldorf School had changed Artemis the hunter into a wilderness lover and no doubt a tree hugger.

“Artemis was athletic.  She liked walking and hiking.  She’s a perfect goddess for California.  Would you like this collage if I bought it for you?” I asked.

“I might.  I’d like to check the other collages before we get it,” Florence said.

I told the gallery manager we would like to buy the collage, but we wanted to look at the other collages before making a final purchase.  Florence finally said she wanted the Artemis collage.

Marsha Connell came to speak with us.  “Every girl needs a goddess picture,” I said to Marsha Connell.

“It will encourage you to exercise,” Connell said.

“I love it.  It’s going up in my bedroom,” Florence said.

“I’ll give some examples of alchemy on the way out,” I joked with Connell.

That was Florence’s first question when we left the gallery.  “I’m still not sure what alchemy is,” she said.

“Well, for starters, you’ll hear people use that word all the time in California to describe their poetry writing, sculpting, painting, drawing, and so on.  Let’s do an Artemis walk to the ice cream store, and I’ll explain more,” I said.

“People have always been trying to make gold.  In the Middle Ages, they tried to change cheap lead into gold.  The people who did it were called alchemists.  Alchemy split into two parts. The scientists became chemists.  The failed gold makers became artists, who still produced things of value just not gold.  You do alchemy at your Waldorf School everyday,” I said.

“Like what.  I’ve never heard that word before,” Florence said.

“First you have done things in textile arts that would qualify as alchemy.  You have knit and crocheted carrier bags for your recorders.  You took a single piece of yarn and used your knowledge and skill to change it into a lovely and useful item to protect a musical instrument,” I said.

“I am beginning to get it,” Florence said.

“Another alchemical thing you do at school is woodworking.  You made you own knitting needles by sanding down the ends to a point.  Then, you put beeswax on the other ends in balls to make them pretty,” I said.

“What other alchemical things do we do at school?” Florence asked.

“You’ve made beeswax candles in a mold from lump beeswax,” I said.  I smiled thinking of the French people making German crafts.  The candles did smell good when they burned, but they irritated my eyes.

“Basically, when you make something that takes on a different shape or form from what you started with or create something where there was nothing before is alchemy.  Those haiku poems that you write with your Japanese teacher are alchemy, too,” I said.

“Give me some more examples,” Florence said.

“Okay.  The artist Picasso took a bicycle seat and handlebars and put them together to look like a bull’s head.  That’s the kind of alchemy Marsha Connell does with her collages,” I said.

“I do alchemy, too,” I ventured.

“No, you don’t,” Florence said.

“I can take a bowl of heavy cream, add a little sugar, and mix it with a blender to make whipped cream,” I said.

“That’s cooking.  That’s not art,” Florence remarked.

“The French consider cooking alchemy and an art,” I said.

“I like ice cream alchemy,” Florence said as we arrived at the ice cream shop

While we ate our double scoop ice creams outside, I continued with the alchemy lecture. 

“Another form of cooking alchemy is taking hard popcorn kernals and letting them pop in hot oil.  You get popcorn that is soft from doing that,” I said.

“Making an omelet from an egg is alchemy,” I said.

“I get it now,” Florence said.

“One last thing.  Making things nice for the holidays is alchemy.  You turn everyday life into art by cooking nice meals, decorating, and putting gifts together for the holidays.  The best alchemy of all is turning your life into art,” I said.

By Ruth Paget - Author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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