Catherine Eaton Skinner

Painting

On July 23rd of 2018, a 10 foot flash flood swept through our Santa Fe property, a tsunami in a quiet valley, washing animals, debris and tumbling boulders downstream. My work went from the universal to the personal, understanding that the presumed control over the environment had evolved to a “new norm.” I grew up in the Pacific Northwest where my backyard was old growth forests, freshwater lakes and the Puget Sound. Moss-covered stones mark the water flowing from the surrounding mountain ranges. As a family we collected stones from glacial rivers, desert lava flows, and endless beach walks. These became part of my childhood landscape in gardens and my mother’s bonsai. When my childhood home was sold on my parents’ passing, I transported stones to my own home gathered over these years of exploration.

I work between studios in Seattle and Santa Fe, places where people honor the earth, carrying tumbled stones or healing quartz in their pockets. In my travels I have connected with others who placed stones they collected from the valley to the mountain summit. My bare feet have marked ocean beaches and red soil. I have visited deep rooted trees wrapped with white cloth. Venerated stones have been coated in vermillion powder and hand hewn monoliths covered in gold leaf or washed with sacred waters. These journeys are bound together in memory with objects on my altar.

Archetypal elements mark the landscape of earth and stone, standing as vestiges of time. My layers of wax and oil stick acknowledge these pathways with marking, scarring, and erasing. Scraped lines chart breaks in the microcosm of earth or celestial vaults of the universe. Water, earth, wind, fire, and ether emerge in physical form in my work: beeswax and resin; graphite and oil stick; wood, paper, and cloth; glass and stone; lead sheet, wire, and precious metal leaf. My paintings often reference the horizontal line between the sky and earth or the vertical line of the axis mundi. The possibility of hope for our environment and ourselves as humans comes in the form of the returning light in the morning sky.

My work encompasses sculpture, paintings, photography and found objects, oftentimes a combination of these media. This allows a flexibility and congruency to the exhibition with an awareness of the universal sacred space. Within these bodies of work, I often use the repetition of the number 108 which has powerful meanings, especially in Eastern religions and traditions. Repetition used as a practice allows for focus leading to an inner center of quiet. Simplicity comes with the commitment to this ritual of patterns.

wind waits on still stone
with the silence
of listening trees
to join
the upward wings
of ravens
toward a sky
of memories

The historical reverence for the power and sacredness of earth spans the timeline of our cultural memory. We live in a chaotic world where it is difficult to feel a part of the whole with a loss of control and balance: personally, politically, and spiritually. There must be an acceptance of what cannot be corrected. If we become still and silent, we feel the four winds and the sky. We are then one with our kin of the past, the present, and the future. We are then one with the energies of it all. Hopefully we will continue to find ways to understand and bond, not only to our environment, but most importantly, to each other.

More on Catherine Eaton Skinner’s work can be found on our Links page.