That work with paper would have such a quality is no surprise; the history of paper is threaded with ritual uses. Paper has often been a container of the sacred---in holy books and scrolls, banners, and offerings---and the process of papermaking itself can be viewed as having an inherently alchemical, ritual aspect in transforming plant to paper. Six artists working with paper were asked to address the spiritual or ritual character of their work. Their responses, which follow, explore these qualities in their working processes as well as in their completed works. Thomas Grade Thomas Grade's work is concerned with ritual, both in his artistic process and in his imagery. Inspiration for his colorful, richly patterned wall reliefs comes from traveling and from studying a wide variety of traditional ethnic societies. "The motifs or elements I employ in my patterned papers usually stem from imagery found in cultural cloths and draw on images which symbolize the spiritual protection of one's being, be it a stylized animal or a geometric pattern." In creating the armatures to house these papers, he refers to the dwellings of traditional societies. Grade feels that he is intertwining architectural and fabric traditions---"structures used to protect and guard the body and soul"---in creating his shield and guardian forms. Through working, Grade feels connected to ritual uses of paper in other cultures and times. "My paper techniques are quite basic, very similar to paper's ritual beginnings. I work with simple pulled strip sheets of abaca. Inlaid designs, mixed textural pulp, and color stencils are incorporated to create my patterns. The works are then constructed by building with those strips of paper. The layers come to symbolize the layering of experiences and values we use in the foundations of our lives, and the layers of cultures which have risen and fallen to create our present societies." Grade assembles his pieces on the floor. "Many cultures work this way. Stitching and binding the work becomes a very repetitive process. Through this process a spiritual connection occurs." Grade speaks of many connections---between eras, between cultures, and between worlds. He hopes that his work will arouse in the viewer a curiosity in societies other than our own and offer alternatives to "our fast-paced, self-absorbed mind set, thinking that all on the planet should act and look the same." Susan Mackin-Dolan Susan Mackin-Dolan creates woodcuts and etchings on handmade paper. Her pieces often incorporate a wide, patterned border which frames the central printed image. There is a medieval or Naif quality both to the style of her work and its imagery. Patterned and figurative, her detailed images seem allegorical. They suggest the presence of forces beyond the individual. "The images I use are definitely an exploration of my own spirituality and, I hope, of a collective or universal spirituality. Because they are generally symbolic in nature, the viewer can respond and interpret them in a more individual way." Mackin-Dolan has always felt a mystical connection to the natural world, which she attributes to "growing up in the Maine woods in an intense Catholic environment." She is aware of the destructiveness caused by the lack of a healthy, respectful relationship to nature in modern American culture. "Many of my images deal with our ability or inability to conform nature to our own wants and desires." In her work, Mackin-Dolan does not consciously use her materials in a ritualistic manner, but she recognizes a receptive, spiritual aspect to her artmaking: "transforming something from a basic raw state to a complete, unique image has always had something of a life of its own." Sharon Lynn Ivicevik Although Sharon Lynn Ivicevik has never consciously thought of her work as spiritual, some viewers have sensed in it a spiritual mood. "I think that which others might define as spirituality I feel as 'individual creativity,' the ability to reach into one's deepest, most personal self and express an immensely personal feeling that is recognized, feels familiar to others." Since 1985, Ivicevik has been working on a series titled ARLTST, an acronym for All Roads Lead to the Subterranean Tepee. The Native American tepee in her work stands for individual creativity and for "a state of mind---an inner sanctum, isolated but seldom lonely." It also serves as a shelter "from this 'civilization' which overpowers, overproduces, over-consumes, over-discards, discouraging individuality and constantly threatening disaster." Subterranean in her title refers to "the human body which, legend tells us, is the same composition as dirt." Making the paper for her work is an important part of Ivicevik's process. She makes a pulp from straw and casts it onto sandblasted plywood, achieving a gutsy, textured surface. She then adds color and detail with encaustic and mixed media. Rich in reds, blues, and golds, with dark earthy backgrounds, all pieces in the ARLTST series contain an image of a triangular tepee. The tepees exist in an environment that seems brooding, nocturnal. An inner space is suggested. Sometimes the tepees stand alone; sometimes other structures are also suggested. Ivicevik asserts, "I think that the artist's role in this culture is as it has always been: to express his or her own personal truth with courage and integrity. If this is achieved, spirituality will, most assuredly, be a close and friendly neighbor." Catherine Nash Catherine Nash says her art "has always been an outlet in my quest for spiritual understanding, coming to terms with myself and a search for grounding within from which to work." She creates large environmental installations, working with handmade paper as well as sticks, rocks, and other elements that she gathers near where she lives in Arizona. "There is a ritualistic quality to the gathering and bundling of materials for these works that is very private. This is the time I am closest to the earth, offering thanks for the use of her gifts, and when I am very much at peace in my solitude." Her work strikes one as a collaboration with nature. She incorporates many elements in an unworked state, altering them very little, but their placement within the whole often has a deliberate, ritual quality. Nash creates her installations to be entered and experienced. Her work is not exclusively visual. By inviting the viewers to enter in as participants, she engages more of their senses. "Touch---the textures of handmade paper and varied natural materials; hearing---the crunch underfoot, the hushed silence once seated; and smell---from a thick carpet of leaves, straw, or pine needles, and bundles of herbs." Nash's greatest influences are her childhood, in the woods of New Hampshire, and more recent experiences with Native American friends and their understanding of our place in nature. "Our culture's harried pace, dictated by the ticking clock, blinds us to the peaceful rhythms of nature. I seek to provide an opportunity for the viewer to relax, slow down, and feel safe and protected." Carole Komarek Carole Komarek's sculptural work has a quality of artifact, of being crafted by hand, perhaps for a mysterious ritual use, yet her forms are also reminiscent of forms in nature. This paradox intrigues Komarek and she feels that it has a spiritual aspect. Some of her forms "suggest a duality and transformation of nature-based shape. Transformation is a part of the spiritual experience." Komarek uses a variety of materials in her work and often combines wood and paper. She feels these two materials are kin to each other. "The source of the wood, a tree, has had a long history of spiritual importance and symbolism. The paper that I use is derived from the inner bark. I also explore paper's quality as a 'skin' or painted covering to transform shapes. It can appear to be wood, metal, leather, or fiber." She is aware as an artist of the link between spirituality and symbol-making. "In sculpture, it is the power and potential of an object that somehow triggers a memory or association and, in this way, the object begins to function as a symbol." Komarek affirms her commitment to the presence of forests and nature, important sources of her inspiration. She hopes that "the use of less traditional sculpture media will also make the viewer aware of the value and potential of the fine art materials in our environment." Jeanne Jaffe Like Komarek, Jeanne Jaffe emphasizes transformation. She states, "In all my work I am concerned with psychological and physical transformation and regeneration." She thinks of her work more in terms of the psychological than the spiritual or transcendent, and more connected to earth-grounded soul, that which psychologist James Hillman has called the "intermediate realm of psyche---which is also the realm of images, and the power of imagination."^1 Jaffe creates sculpture of cast paper and begins by making plaster molds from clay models. Pigmented paper pulp is then cast in the plaster molds. Pieces are later assembled to create the final whole. Her recent sculptures are totemic, with many references to parts of the human body and plant, skeletal, and spiraling shell shapes. They evoke the graceful, curving, ever-changing beauty of forms in nature. Jaffe stresses that her work emerges from her inner experience. "My images grow out of a deep respect for the psyche and its processes. My sources are dreams, archetypal symbols, and metaphorical images. In my work I attempt to give concrete, sensate form to intangible, internal experiences. Body fragments, vegetative processes, and animal references move from one form into another, creating a dialogue between divergent realms." She speaks as an artist of the pressing need in ourselves, our culture, and our world to move toward reintegration and wholeness. "Specialization, fragmentation, and dualism have had a disintegrating effect on both the individual and the collective psyche. It is necessary to reintegrate the separated aspects of psyche in order to have a full, rich, and dimensional experience. Dread, irony, and cynicism are a defense against soul, pleasure, and the inevitable loss of all we are moved by. We need to re-animate a de-animated world." For the artists profiled here, making art is a way of connecting with one's deep inner self and with the greater community of being. The process of working itself can contain ritual process, as Grade and Nash experience. Mackin-Dolan, Komarek, and Jaffe recognize the transformation as a dynamic process in their work and connect it to spirituality or the depths of soul. Ivicevik also refers to inner depth in her artwork. All of the artists express feelings of connection to nature and a desire to honor the earth and its creatures. They seek the re-animation which Jaffe refers to. The artist, as one who is engaged in working intimately with matter and in bringing forth images, can hold an important role in that transformation. Notes 1. James Hillman, "Peaks and Vales" in Puer Papers, Spring 1979, Dallas, p. 54.
