Reliquaries :: Saraswati Reliquary |
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Saraswati, in the Hindu religion, is the Goddess of
creative arts and knowledge. In mythology, Saraswati is depicted with
four hands representing the four aspects of human personality in learning:
mind, intellect, alertness and ego. She is often seen holding sacred
scripture in one hand, a lotus in another, and a veena (violin) with
her remaining two hands. I enjoy finding a name for the anonymous female
images that I collect. What could be more fitting for an artist trying
to juggle so many roles, than to have a little Saraswati
Reliquary to honor wisdom and creativity. |
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Reliquaries :: Decorative Art Reliquary :: Rambha's Anklet |
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This Decorative Art Reliquary
:: Rambha's Anklet is another one of my reliquaries which was created
around a piece of paper. This one is inside -- pale tuquoise with paisley
glitter designs. When I found the fringe, I knew it would match perfectly.
But I wanted to add the luster of pink as well, and used it as an accent
color. A broken piece of an anklet became the relic. I chose the name
Rambha for the Indian woman. Rambha means "celestial dancer" and so
I imagine her wearing this anklet and dancing in her garden. |
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Reliquaries :: Catholic Art Reliquary :: Sr. Maria Angelina's Crucifix |
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A gold-toned crucifix that I found in an antique/junk
store is the relic for the Catholic Art Reliquary :: Sister Maria Angelina's Crucifix. It
echoes the rosary that this young postulate is holding in her left hand,
as well as the crucifix hanging on the wall in background. |
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Reliquaries :: A Queen's Games |
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This reliquary features a weathered Italian playing
card as its relic. The cover paper is also based on a vintage deck of
cards. I knew I wanted one of my reliquaries to use the queen of clubs
and to overflow with the color red. I didn't know what I was going to
use for the female image on the right, until I found this picture in
a very old magazine. It was washed out, so I scanned and enhanced it
in Photoshop and used colored pencils to bring out the colors. There
are so many found objects in this reliquary, that it has really become
a piece of assemblage art. It was so much fun putting together the elements
of this Reliquary
:: A Queen's Games all together. |
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Reliquaries :: Dancing Girl Reliquary :: Ciera's Spells |
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I created Dancing Girl
Reliquary :: Ciera's Spells, because I wanted to use a particular
piece of beautiful paper in one of my reliquaries. I hadn't seen anything
like it before. Soft and pliable, with a black background, bright pink
design, and glitter! What could be cooler than that? I bought every
variation of this paper that they had in the store and then gleefully
discovered the metallic trim. I was in heaven. I had used this wonderful
photo of the girl in a collage I had done and was excited to find another
way to display her. This is not a picture of my sweet niece, Ciera,
but the girl reminds me of her. Ciera loves to be on stage! |
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Reliquaries :: Saint Joan of Arc :: Saint Joan of Arc's Reliquary |
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I have always loved the stories about Saint Joan of
Arc, the French maid who heard voices from God telling her to lead an
army. I don't know if this vintage postcard is actually a picture of
St. Joan, but it seems very possible. I found the card after I had begun
creating my reliquaries and knew that I had to use it as part of the
series. I love the shades of turquoise and green in the card, and the
gold tinting that had been done by hand on this little piece of art.
This was one of the first reliquaries I did where I carefully carved
the scalloped arch. Creating the Saint Joan of Arc
Reliquary was definitely a challenge, but a fun one. |
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Reliquaries :: Triptych Reliquary :: Marie's Key |
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It's not often when I can find a series of three antique
postcards with the same model, at least not one as angelic as the young
girl in Triptych
Reliquary :: Marie's Key. I wanted to use all three images together
in one of my reliquaries and came up with the idea of this triptych.
I had two identical board books that I cut and melded together like a
jigsaw puzzle. I almost ruined it when I realized I had glued all the
back pages down. How was I going to achieve the depth I wanted if I couldn't
create the layered pages? Everything worked out, and I'm happy with the
result. |
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Reliquaries :: Reliquary :: Wedding Pearls |
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This is one of the first reliquaries I made using
a very large book. It has been difficult to find used copies of books
this size for my reliquaries, so I snatch them up new whenever I can
find them. Reliquary :: Wedding Pearls was my most ambitious carving
project at the time. It's difficult to see because of the white and silver
color scheme, but I had to do a lot of planning prior to cutting in order
to get the layered look that I wanted-- the perfect frame for the lovely
vintage flower girl. |
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Reliquaries :: Clown Art Reliquary :: Angel's Bone |
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The clown images in Clown Art Reliquary
:: Angel's Bone were from a single sheet of paper that I found
in a wonderful shop in Berkeley, California, called Castles in the
Air. It was the last piece of this paper that they had, and nobody
in the store even knew what the price was. There were lots of wonderful
vintage clown pictures on it; it was difficult to decide which one
to use. I'll probably do one or two more reliquaries with the same
theme just so I can use some more of the pictures. This was one of
the first reliquaries I did that does not use religious imagary. It
was the paper that caused me to break away from the religious theme. |
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Reliquaries :: Theresa's Cross Reliquary |
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It was the nun's blue eyes that inspired the blue
theme in this Reliquary :: Theresa's Cross. It was a wonderful
bit of fate that I found the cross with the blue stones in a thrift shop.
It's hard to tell from the photo, but the columns are rather wide, and
so was the book. Carving out the niches took a long time and put quite
a strain on my wrist. I experimented with other methods of cutting the
book, but nothing has worked as well as my monster exacto blade. I use
it for all my reliquaries. |
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Reliquaries :: Woman Praying Reliquary :: Christopher's Hair |
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This is another one of my reliquaries with a religious
image and theme. I had just received some incredible silky lavender paper
that I wanted to use for a cover, so that's how the purple color scheme
came about. Coincidentally, as I was in the process of carving the arches
on the right page, I found this lovely flower trim and knew that I had
to use it in this book. It wasn't until the very end that I decided to
use a lock of my son's hair in the vial, and that's how Woman Praying Reliquary :: Christopher's Hair got its
name. By the way, since I snipped my son's hair for this art work, his
hair color has gone to black to red and black again. No blonde to be
seen. |
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Reliquaries :: Religious Reliquaries :: John's Tooth |
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Religious
Reliquaries :: John's Tooth, was the first in this series of reliquaries
that I created. I started with the wonderful vintage picture of the
nun and discovered that I already had this lovely green paper with
the gold embossed design running through it. The rhinestones and baquettes
came from a broken piece of costume jewelry that I found at a yard
sale. I've been searching for broken pieces of jewelry for my reliquaries
ever since. |
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 A BRIEF HISTORY of RELIQUARIES :: Browsing through an old decorating magazine one day, I turned to a page which had photographs of a lovely Italian villa. The owner was a passionate collector of antiquities and his incredible collection included beautiful architectural drawings and what looked to be religious assemblages in glorious gilt frames covering one of the room's walls. Nothing much was written about them except to say that they were calendar reliquaries. I wasn't even sure how to pronounce that second word (relic-quarries). They were fascinating, but I wanted to see them close-up, so I started searching online and in the library for information about reliquaries. What I learned was that reliquaries are shrines used for storing relics. A relic could be a piece of bone, skin, hair, limb, clothing, or other personal item kept after the death of a person for the purpose of creating a memorial venerating that person. Relics are important aspects of religions such as Christianity, Buddhism, and Hinduism. During the early years of Christianity, tales began to be told of miracles associated with the relics of saints and other religious people and artifacts. In the Middle Ages, people would go in search of relics and bring them back to be displayed in their churches. These relics would be stored in all different types of shrines, or reliquaries, within the church. They would often be elaborate vessels of gold encrusted in jewels. Sometimes the reliquaries would be in the shape of the object they were holding such as an arm or a skull. Often the reliquaries would be simply made, using embellishments of quilling or embroidery, beads or shells, and the images of saints. Relics can also refer to personal items that we treasure and want to keep through time. 
MY RELIQUARIES :: I was inspired to create my own reliquaries as a way to combine my love for the beauty of religious imagery, architectural ornament, and altered books. My reliquaries start in different ways. Sometimes I'm taken by a piece of beautiful paper or fabric. Sometimes I have a religious image that I want to use in my art. Other times I've been drawn to the architectural features of a church or temple that I want to try and recreate in my own simplified way. I pull together paints, papers, fabrics, beads, ribbons, trims, jewels, glitter, found objects, and anything else I can discover to help me create my reliquaries. Sometimes the reliquaries have religious overtones; other times they don't. It just depends on my mood and whim. I use children's board books as my canvas. They are sanded and primed with several coats of gesso. Then I carve through the layers of the books to create the architectural features that I want. The various layers are decorated with paint and/or paper. I often include columns, windows, or curtains to embellish the shrine. The relic is sewn into the display area, and then the front and back of the book are decorated and the finishing touches are made. Every altered book is special and has its own unique story behind it. Creating these reliquaries has been a joyful experience.
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© 2009 :: Karen J. Hatzigeorgiou
All rights reserved.
Contact :: karen@karenswhimsy.com