Power & Protection Broadside of artist accordion book.
Power of Astrology: Born on the Day of the Dead
Power to wash the sins away
Power of Small Sins: She said "patent leather shoes reflect up your skirt!"
Power to see the lie. My mother told us as children that if we lied a black line would appear on our tongue. Since we could not see our own tongues when confronted with the question "Are you telling the truth?" and stuck our tongues out, we believed it was true.
Power to open your heart.
Power to celebrate life.
I thought like Superman, the priest turned into Jesus.
Lesson: Mom said "if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all!"
Power of Manipulation: Pagan Babies In the 1950s in catholic schools we saved our pennies to get $5 which would buy a baby from it's mother to put into a catholic orphanage to be baptized and raised as catholic. Why anyone would think this a good idea or right and just, is beyond my imagination. We made a display of the profiles of all of our pagan babies. I guess people from other countries who were not catholic were pagan....
Power of Small Sins: I never believed RED aroused passions.
Lesson: Sticks and Stones may break your bones, but names will never hurt you!
Power to remember a lost love.
Lesson: Can't never did anything.
Lesson: If at first you don't succeed, TRY, TRY AGAIN!
Power of Small Sins: Do pearls really reflect down your blouse?
About this body of work:
As a schoolgirl, I wore my Catholic medals around my neck to protect me from the devil, sins and bad thoughts. Each was endowed with special powers. St. Anthony, for protection when traveling; St. Jude, for hopeless cases; and the Blessed Virgin covered all the rest. The crucifix reminded us of how Jesus died for our sins, and the nuns' rulers reminded us that we had been bad and needed to pay attention to those amulets, medals and pray a bit more.
That old devil was around every corner of every room tempting us to be naughty, as if being naughty was going to lose our place in heaven and send us directly to hell.
My body of work pokes fun at my old belief system, organized religion, and guilt. It examines a child's notions that did not understand symbolic language but took metaphor as fact. It consists of an artist book and one in broadside and the digital prints that are my own metaphors for the events of life.
Therefore, the priest did not turn into Jesus like Superman was changed from Clark Kent, but merely, was the spiritual equivalent to Jesus when in the confessional; and as much as they told us what was said in the confessional was never to be told to another by the priest, mine was calling my mom for me not knowing my simple confessional prayer.
Still, Mom’s truisms hang in my mind as Lessons; and the nuns warnings do too. Our old nuns must have had dirty minds to dream up so many dos and don’ts that were sexual in nature. We would never have dreamed these up, if left to our own devices.
Barbara Houghton
2013
Power & Protection artist hand made accordion book before folding.
