An Uncommon Saint -Kateri Tekakwitha

10 Monday Feb 2014

Posted by danielwalldammit in Native American Themes, Uncommonday

Tags

American Indian, Catholic Curch, Catholicism, Kateri Tekakwitha, Native American, religion, Sainthood, Santa Fe, Sculpture

Meet Kateri Tekakwitha (1656-1680). She is Mohawk and Algonquin. She is also the first North American Indian be canonized by the Catholic Church. She is the fourth Native American to become a saint, having been preceded by three central American natives. You might think that is what makes her uncommon, or might have thought it unusual that I am taking time to plug a Catholic saint (which is certainly an uncommon thing for me to do), and fair enough on both points.

What really interests me here is Kateri’s attire. Standing as she is here in front of the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi in Santa Fe, I can’t tell if her attire is fitting or not. You see, she appears to be dressed as Pueblo, which is a little bit unusual (perhaps not fitting) for a Mohawk woman. How did she get so dressed? It might have something to do with the fact that Kateri’s sculptor in this instance was Estella Loretto of Jemez, which would make her attire fitting after all.

…but it’s still just a little odd.

Of course, for some of us ‘odd’ is good proxy for ‘interesting’.

Tekakwitha is portrayed in Iroquois dress inside the Cathedral itself. I would hardly have noticed that this was the same woman, and I have to thank my friend John for pointing this out to me. Just what to make of the changes in dress, I’m not entirely sure. A visit to a Catholic Church is certainly an uncommon experience for me.

In any event, it is a beautiful sculpture.

An Uncommon Holy Relic: Sheela-Na-Gig!

20 Monday Jan 2014

Posted by danielwalldammit in History, Religion, Uncommonday

≈ 9 Comments

Tags

Archaeology, Christianity, Churches, Femininity, Gender, Sculpture, Sex, Sheela-Na-Gig, Stone-Work

Okay, now I know what you are thinking; “Dan is posting porn again! Will someone please keep him away from that damned erotic heritage place!?!” But no. I tell you I didn’t find this in a red light district, smut shop, or even a kinky museum. This naughty little lady was found at a church. Her name is Sheela, or at least that’s what folks call her and a vast array of figures like her. She and her sisters go by the full name of ‘Sheela-na-Gigs’, and you can find them on churches throughout the United Kingdom. Yes, that’s right, it appears that one can find images of grotesque women spreading their labia can be found at old churches throughout the United Kingdom.

Why, you may ask. Well it’s a fair question, but the answer appears to be difficult to nail down. There are a couple theories as to the origins of the term, Sheela-Na-gig, just as there are a few theories as to the reason such images could be found in old churches. Is she a relic of past paganism, an omen about the temptations of sin, or possibly just an erotic gargoyle of sorts. It really depends on who you ask. As I recall, an archaeologist once suggested that she was a symbol of Jesus himself, but I can’t find a written source on that. Presumably, that theory didn’t get very far. Anyway, the whole thing is a little too far outside my own areas for me to weigh in on the controversies with confidence, but I think we can safely draw one conclusion from it; the history of Christianity is far more complex and interesting than you would gather from your local neighborhood church (unless perhaps you are in England).

Of course most history is more complex than folks would gather from the world as it is now, but it doesn’t hurt to remind people of the full range of human possibility from time to time.

That’s what Sheela is here for.

***

The image above is on Kilpeck Church. I have included a few others below, most of which I drew from a website called The SheelaNaGig Project. Also included are images from Chloran, Moulton, Fiddington, Binstead, Oxford, and Llandrindod. You may click to embiggen (if you dare), but a visit to the almighty wiki or the SheelanaGig Project is well worth the time it takes to read about these figures.

: Chloran (Got this one from the British Museum website)

: Binstead

: Llandrindod

: The Moulton Pair

: Fiddington

: Oxford

Uncommonday, Road Trip!

09 Monday Dec 2013

Posted by danielwalldammit in Bad Photography, Uncommonday

≈ 11 Comments

Tags

Alaska, Houston, Houston Alaska, Pie, Pond, Road Trip, Sculpture, Skeeter, Small Town

This summer, I drove all the way from Anchorage to Houston.

It took about an hour.

I missed the main residential district, but I did stop to enjoy an apple pie in a lovely restaurant by a beautiful pond. Anyway, this is my second Houston. I think I like it.

…or at least its pies and its ponds.

: Restaurant

: Good Pie!

: A close-up of the pond.

: Were it not for rain, I could have eaten by the pond.

: A monument to the state bird.

: I missed all of these events!

: Fire Dept

In Reno With a Camera – Trouble Ensues!

21 Saturday Jul 2012

Posted by danielwalldammit in Bad Photography, Justice, Street Art

≈ 26 Comments

Tags

First Amendment, Free Speech, Freedom of the Press, Mural, Nevada, Photography, Reno, Sculpture, Street Art

So, I have this brand new camera, and I have been busy confirming my lack of photographic skills whenever I get a chance. Alone for a day in Reno, NV, I decided to go check out some of the artwork around town.

So, I figured these pics might go up on Facebook, but this isn’t a photo-blog, so I really didn’t think my trip to Reno would end up here at the northy place.

That was before I got to the Bruce R. Thompson, United States Courthouse & Federal Building. It had kind of an interesting sculpture in front of it, so I tried a few times to get a decent pic; zoomed in and out, turned the camera 90 degrees, tried it again, …you know the drill.

Enter the security guard.

He walked up rather briskly and asked me if I was doing this for commercial purposes? I answered ‘no’, and he proceeded to explain to me that if I had been doing it for commercial purposes, then I would need to get a permit. As long as I was just doing it, because I thought it was an interesting building I was okay, but taking a picture for commercial purposes required a permit. Asked why this was the case, the guard simply shrugged and said the politicians always have their regulations. What they were, he didn’t seem to know.

I had my pictures, so I walked off.

…but this has been eating me. Oh, the guard was perfectly nice about the whole thing, but still it’s eating me. I’ve studied enough legal conflicts to know just how complicated and counter-intuitive these matters can get, and normally I like to sort through the particulars before saying anything. Still! Somewhere in the scope of the First Amendment, I just can’t help thinking there ought to be room for taking a picture of a perfectly public building from a perfectly public sidewalk.

…and it shouldn’t require a damned permit to do it.

At this point I have no idea what the regulation is, or how broad its scope happens to be, much less how its framers envision its relationship to the rights of citizens. Nor do I know how much may have been lost in the translation from the particulars to what that guard said to me at that particular moment. But this is one case where I just can’t help thinking that no matter how the particulars shake out, it shouldn’t lead to exchanges like the one I had there with that guard.

Perhaps I am being unreasonable; I just don’t think so.

Since I’m thinking about it (airports and free time, you know how it goes), and since I now have story (however brief) to go with my bad photography, I am now going to inflict my pictures on those of you unfortunate enough to stumble across my blog today.

What did you expect? I’m a bad man!