Hanging Your Haitian Metal Sculpture

May 28, 2015

Use your thumb to find the approximate middle of the piece where two design elements are joined. It has become apparent that I have put the cart before the horse with regard to decorating with Haitian metal. I have posted numerous blogs in which I have offered lots and lots of ideas for WHERE to display our sculptures, (On the fence, on the wall, above the doorway, on the fireplace, etc.) but most of them require knowing HOW to hang them first. So let’s back up a bit and I’ll do a little show and tell. Some of our recycled metal sculptures come with a hanger riveted to the back of the piece, making it pretty obvious how to get the job of hanging done. If it doesn’t have a hanger, it’s because it doesn’t need one. The job is still a snap and all you have to do is follow these 3 simple steps: 1. Looking at the front of the sculpture and find the approximate middle where design elements are joined or closed. In this tree of life, it is where two leaves meet. Hammer the first nail in there. 2. Then, find another place where design elements are joined or closed. Use this point to straighten and secure the piece. If the sculpture is large, you may want to use another nail or two, but for most sculptures (23″ round or smaller) 1-2 nails are sufficient. ” When you step back to admire your work, you’ll see that the nails have “disappeared” into the sculpture. 3. If your sculpture has a “face” such as that of a bird or mermaid, for instance, make sure you DO NOT put the nails in the eyes or mouth. A viewer’s attention will go right to those elements and therefore, straight to your nail. That is exactly what you don’t want. Now, didn’t I tell you? It’s a snap. Contributed by Linda for It’s Cactus

Pound the first nail into the spot you’ve identified..

See? The nails disappear right into the sculpture.

Promises, promises…

May 24, 2015

Dove and Flight, SM488

A promise is a promise. In the previous blog, I told you that I would delve into the symbolism of the Dove as the Holy Spirit, and so I shall. But after a fair bit of digging, I confess that the research hasn’t gone quite as I had expected. Yes, the dove is a strong symbol of the Holy Spirit, but its representation as such is hugely variable. I thought I could say, “When the dove looks like our Haitian art piece (photo left) it symbolizes the Holy Spirit, and here are lots of other examples.” Well, that’s just not gonna happen. The Dove as Holy Spirit flies, it hovers, it perches, it sits, it is in profile and it is in full frontal view

Brazilian carving, ca 17th century, artist unknown.

. In short, it seems that if a dove has a few leaves in it’s beak, it is a Dove of Peace and pretty much EVERY other posture a dove can possibly assume could be interpreted as a symbol for the Holy Spirit.
The origin of this association is found in several instances in the New Testament of the Bible. According to Bible History Daily, dove imagery is noted at the baptism of Jesus in all four of the Gospels.  When John the Baptist brought Jesus up out of the water, “The [Holy] Spirit [of God] came from heaven and descended on him ‘like a dove’  (Matthew 3:16; Mark 1:10; Luke 3:22; John 1:32). The baptism story built on the pre-existing symbol of the dove as God’s spirit (and its many other meanings) and firmly entrenched it as the preferred representation of the Holy Spirit.”
Italian Renaissance artists took that ball and ran with it, including doves in their renditions of events such as the

Folk Art Cross by Felipe Gonzales, ca 1985. International Museum of Folk Art

Annunciation of the Virgin, The Baptism, and The Crucifixion.  Latin American artists followed suit and thereafter folk artists used the dove in their depictions of these same

biblical events. (See photos right.) Notably, Andy Warhol added a dove to his 1986 series, “The Last Supper – Dove.” It was a characteristically Warhol interpretation of DaVinci’s epic piece in which the Renaissance Immortal apparently thought no dove was required. (View Warhol’s “Last Supper – Dove” here.)
So there you have it. Doves can represent  Peace and the Holy Spirit, not to mention Motherhood, Purity, Love, Innocence and a host of other attributes. But I’m not going to write any more about doves and their symbolic meaning hence forward. The subject becomes fuzzy very quickly and the challenge for coherent delivery is just too great. I did find some interesting images with peacocks and trees of life together, that could lead to grand adventures in hypothetical correlation and I might even write about them someday, But I’m not making any promises!

Final Installment in a series of two

Contributed by Linda for It’s Cactus

The Dove of Peace

May 14, 2015

Doves which carry an olive branch, however stylized, are universally recognized as a peace symbol.

When is a dove just a dove? Almost never, it seems. Doves are simple birds that have been heavily endowed with symbolism in cultures that criss-cross time and space. Depending on it’s form, its perceived meaning can change rather profoundly. These, pictured left, are Doves of Peace. Everyone knows it. Everyone I’ve ever heard call it anything has called them Doves of Peace. One hundred percent of the time. But why is that?
The answer is several thousand years old, with the passing of time and events sealing the deal. Back when Noah was sailing on his Ark, desperate for a sign that God’s wrath abated, he sent off a dove in search of land. It took a few tries, but one day, the dove returned with an olive branch in its beak. Noah knew by the olive branch that land had arisen from the flood waters and God was at peace with Mankind once again. This story is, of course, from the Judeo-Christian tradition, but there are other sources as well.
In Central Asia, there is a very old folk tale about two kings who were about to face each other in war in Central Asia. A dove had built a nest in the helmet of one of the kings and the king’s mother implored him not to disturb the nest and leave his helmet at home. The next day, when the two armies marched out to face each other, the king without the helmet rode out to meet the other king. When the second king found out that the first king was without protection because of the dove building a nest in his helmet, he was moved by his compassion and

A slight variation on the sculpture above, Both are by Haitian artist Guy Robens Remy.

thought that perhaps he had misjudged him. The two kings talked out their disagreements instead of fighting, and they all lived happily ever after. The dove thus symbolized the peace that was achieved between their two nations. (Hear the story as it is told to children in Azerbaijan here.)

Fast-forward a few milenia to post-war France. Pablo Picasso lived in Nazi-occupied Paris for the duration of World War II and the experience hardened his position as an avowed pacifist. Peace organizations flourished after the War and were eager to engage Picasso and reap the benefits of his celebrity. The First International Peace Congress chose Picasso’s life-like lithograph “La Columbe” as it’s emblem, thus reafirming the dove as a symbol of peace in the modern era. His later renditions of doves were simple line drawings of the bird with a single olive branch in its beak or with colored flowers and an olive branch. These dove drawings became widely associated with the global Peace Movement in the early 1950s and remain among his most popular works today. (See those images here)

And so it is the Dove of Peace. But give it a slight change of form, and it becomes representation of the Holy Spirit.  More about that to follow…
First in a series
Contributed by Linda for It’s Cactus

Doing Good in Haiti

May 7, 2015

This sweet young thing is all excited to be getting a pair of Giving Shoes.

Several weeks ago, I got a new Toms catalogue in the mail. Haiti was featured in the photo shoot of their new spring fashion collection. Needless to say, I was intrigued and paged through with more than casual interest.
Toms, you may know, is a fashion company with a penchant for philanthropy. They have a “One for One” program that began with shoes in 2006. For every pair of shoes purchased, Toms gives a pair of shoes to a child in need. I really liked the idea in the beginning, and supported it by buying quite a few pairs of shoes for myself and as gifts for my family. I liked it, that is, until I did some reading about the effects of charitable donations of clothing in underdeveloped countries. I learned to my horror that in the spirit of giving, countries of the First World have wreaked havoc on the clothing and textile industries of the Third World. There are so many tons of free clothing given out that home grown industry has been, in some cases, nearly wiped out. This includes shoes, and Toms was, unfortunately, implicated. I confess that my enthusiasm for the company and their products crashed and burned, though I never quite got around to withdrawing my name from their mailing list.
Saving trees notwithstanding, this turned out to be a good thing. In reading the new catalogue I discovered that Toms was not oblivious to the criticism being levied against it and in fact, set about to respond in a hugely positive way. Toms committed itself to producing 1/3 of all of their “Giving Shoes” locally by the end of 2015. In Haiti, this commitment has resulted in the opening of a factory outside Port-au-Prince that now employs 40 Haitians, nearly half of whom are women. To date, they have produced over 500,000 shoes for distribution throughout the island country.
And, to coin our own phrase, Toms is “Fighting Poverty with Art.” The Haiti Artist Collective employs 30 Haitians to create a line of hand-

Looking through photos of the children of our artists in Croix-des-Bouquets, I noticed that alot of them did have shoes. Like to think that our fair trade practices have something to do with that.

painted footwear, sold exclusively through Toms. Inspiration for the designs comes from the artist’s themselves, who offer up unique perspectives on Haitian life, of love and peace, and of music and culture. (Sounds a little like It’s Cactus artists too…)
I am happy to report that my enthusiasm for Toms has been revived – big time. Hat’s off! Hip-hip-hooray! What a wonderful things they are accomplishing. Marvelous! I would continue to wax superlative, but I gotta go. It’s time to order shoes.

Contributed by Linda for It’s Cactus