When I finally went to Egypt around 1987 I was hoping for an "aha" moment of recognition, validating the reason for my Egyptian Addiction, but it didn't happen. It was a beautiful, astounding place that I will never, ever forget as long as I live -- but it didn't feel familiar in the least. Istanbul was different, however. I had many moments of feeling like I'd been there before -- weirdly, in common places. Not major historical sites, just odd moments of passing city walls or turning a corner and seeing a scene in the street. Now THAT was odd. Maybe it is just the age of the city itself, but my first few trips there were filled with odd senses of having seen it -- no, not just seen it, but experienced it -- before. A friend of mine had similar experiences in Paraguay, and visited there many times until she finally adopted two baby girls from there and became a single mom. Things like this contribute to the sense of mystery that is part of this unexplainable life.
While I respect Native American culture and like the artwork, it usually doesn't have the draw of ancient Egyptian art. There is one particular image, though, that stopped me in my tracks years ago. It is from Utah and features multiple mummiform figures arranged in a group. Floating like spirits. One large one has internal detail, while others are shadow-like forms. Maybe it is the fact that the figures look like mummies. Maybe it is the color scheme. Maybe it is the loose cluster of figures and the irregular spaces between them. The forms resonated with me to the point where they ended up in a heavily embellished piece based on that connection to past places and lives.
Today on Hyperallergic.com there was an article featuring this image, describing the recent trend of people vandalizing Native American rock art with paint guns and rifles. Really? Using irreplaceable art as target practice. Sigh. Isis is tearing up and destroying the Ancient Near East at an alarming rate, and we are contributing to erasing our own country's history, too. Makes me wonder what art objects and artifacts no longer exist around the world due to human stupidity. Things we know nothing about, lost forever.
Mysterious, like the reasons why places and art seems familiar to people who have had no direct experience with them. What will you make today?