It’s Earth Day tomorrow, a day of remembering and honoring our connection to Mother Earth.
I thought these extraordinary paintings made by Eunika Rogers, perfectly illustrated that connection, and especially the microcosm of our own bodies reflecting the macrocosm of the Mother.
Her masterful renderings aside, Eunika’s work is entirely unique in that she does not paint with traditional pigments; she paints with clay.
Clay she often harvests herself in places near and far from her current home in Colorado.
Born and raised in a small Slovakian village, when she was 12 her family fled (the then communist bloc country), and spent the next four months in refugee camps before eventually winding up in Canada.
Affter graduating from high school, Eunika headed south to the Mississippi Delta, having been awarded a tennis and cross-country running scholarship at Delta State.
She studied both graphic design and ceramics. It was there under the guidance of her professor and mentor, Marcella Small, that she discovered her passion for clay, not only as an art form but also ” as a spiritual experience through finding it, digging it and working with it – raw, unprocessed pure material.”
“I still paint with Mississippi red clay that I dig up near Carrollton, MS.,” the artist tells us in her online statement, “I’ve added other clays and pigments to my palette. ” She shares.
“As a hiker and ultra-distance trail runner I have the means to find secluded areas with clay deposits. I have a collection of umber, sienna, and ochre clays from across America’s countryside and Europe. These clays provide the staining pigments that make up my art imagery.”
Michael McCormick Gallery Director, Jamie Garrison (who is also responsible for bringing Roberto Ugalde into the McCormick stable of artists), says Eunika “is one of the most amazing artists I’ve come across in a long time.”
Eunika paints from Nature, with Nature as her co-creator. Her creative journey takes her deep inside the Mysteries of the Mother and through her beautiful expression, we are called to be partiicipants in this dance with the Earth.
Our bodies, our Earth.
Nature, the Teacher and Healer.
Walk in Grace and Beauty.
For more information about Eunika Rogers and her work, please visit the Michael McCormick Gallery (Best of Taos 2017). linked below.
I’ve included a link to Eunika’s site also.
