:: 2014-17 :: 45cm x 60cm :: Acrylics, Inks and Markers on Canvas ::
One of the ceremonies I had the privilege of attending while in San Cristóbal (along with the other artists who were attending the exhibition events) was a Mayan Fire Ceremony held by priestess Flori Perez of the Mam Maya people of Guatemala. She had come to Mexico to escape the civil war there in the 1990s. During the ceremony, there were songs, smoking of sweet cigars in honour of the ancestors, and prayers for the wellness of humanity in a darkening world. As the ritual reached a crescendo of song, I fell into a trance of prayer and sorrow in which everything opened up to me. I began to see the fire and the smoke rising from it as an array of ancestors, and I felt their presence most strongly. It was a beautiful and memorable moment. See also The Tree Of Life And Death.
with Flori Perez in San Cristóbal de las Casas, March 2014
(left to right: Gabriela Garza Padilla, Flri Perez and her child, Bruce Rimell, Chris Rimell)
