This series of works was inspired by the ancient practice of women playing the frame drum in honor of the Great Goddess of antiquity. Hundreds of statuettes of women drummers have been unearthed in the Eastern Mediterranean region, particularly in Cyprus, where I have lived for many years.
Classical writers recorded the fame of women drummers of that Island, where Aphrodite the Goddess of Love and Beauty rose from the sea. I was privileged to be a student of Layne Redmond, the contemporary woman drummer who brought the knowledge of the frame drum back to Cyprus where it had been banned in the 4th century, c.e., after the conversion of the island to Christianity.
Imagine, if you can, a circle of women breathing, stepping and playing different strokes on the drum together. After some time, individuality dissolves into “entrainment” with the group as we arrive together in a light trance- a theta brainwave state - that allows the free flow of deep intuition and connection to subtle levels of reality.
We learned the four strokes on the drum, each producing a different sound and each related to one of the four elements, the building blocks of our reality in this dimension. My series of Frame Drummers includes three drummers from each element, direction, and season.
Artemesia, Alicia and Annika dancing in shimmering blues and greens represent spring, the east, morning and air.