Lauren Raine
Lauren Raine is a painter, sculptor, mask artist, performance artist, author, and choreographer with work in international private and public collections. She was Director of Rites of Passage Gallery in Berkeley, California. After studying mask traditions in Bali, she created a collection of 35 multi-cultural, mythological "Masks of the Goddess" which she conceived of as "Contemporary Temple Masks". From 1999 to 2008 the collection traveled throughout the U.S., in use by numerous groups of performers, ritualists and teachers. In 2007 she initiated 3 community art projects based upon a Native American creation myth, "Spider Woman's Hands". She is a recipient of the Alden B. Dow Creativity Center Fellowship for the year 2007, Resident Artist at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C. in 2009, and resident artist at Gallery 408 in Carrizozo, N.M in 2010.
Education
Raine holds a BFA from the University of California at Berkeley and an MFA in painting and cross-disciplinary arts from the University of Arizona (1987). She has attended Otis Art Institute and the New England Institute for Art Therapy. She has been a mask artist at the New York, Arizona, Maryland, California and other Renaissance Festivals, and has trained numerous apprentices since 1988. In 2000 she went to Bali, where she studied with traditional Balinese mask artists, including Ida Bagus Anom and others, and produced a collection of collaborative masks while there.
Exhibitions, classes and performances
Raine was an exhibitor at the Symposium for Art and the Invisible Reality at Rutgers University (organized by Dr. Rafael Montanez Ortiz) in 1989. She began a mask business in 1991 after winning "Best of Show" at the Mill Ave Arts Festival in Tempe, Arizona, and in 1992 designed a line of mythic masks for festivals and other events in the Neo-pagan community. In 1999 she opened Rites of Passage Gallery in Berkeley, California, and created The Masks of the Goddess for the Reclaiming Community's Spiral Dance. In 2000 she made masks for Hungry Ghosts of Albion, and collaborated on Tragos, a film and play by Antero Alli. After studying with Ida Bagus Anom in Bali in 2000, she produced (with Anom and others) collaborative works that were exhibited (and performed) at Buka Creati Gallery in Ubud, Bali in 2000.
The collection "Masks of the Goddess" have appeared at: New College of California, Chapel of Sacred Mirrors (New York City), The Masks of Transformation Conference at the University of Southern Illinois, the Matrilineage Festival in Syracuse, N.Y., the University of Creation Spirituality (Matthew Fox) in Oakland, Black Box Theatre (Oakland, Ca.), Health and Harmony Festival in Sonoma, California, the Brushwood Folklore Center in New York, and the Muse Community Arts Center, Tucson, Arizona.
In 2011 she was a presenter at the Goddess Conference in Glastonbury, England, and in 2007 and 2008 she was on the faculty of the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in .[1]
Recent performances
- Restoring the Balance, Nations Hall Theatre, Tucson, AZ. (With Katherine Josten and The Global Art Project)
- Goddess (choreographer Serene Zloof) - performance at the Chapel of Sacred Mirrors, New York, N.Y.
- Woman With A Thousand Faces at Black Box Theatre, Oakland, Ca.
- The Divine Feminine - ritual directed by Evelie Posche, at the University of Creation Spirituality, Oakland, Ca.
- Invocation - The Spiral Dance, San Francisco, CA (2006)
Recent exhibitions
- Weavers, Wesley Theological Seminary Washington, D.C. (2009)
- Spider Woman's Hands, Midland Center for the Arts Midland, Michigan (2007)
- Masks of Transformation, University of Illinois Museum of Art, Carbondale, Illinois (Speaker)(2005)
- Masks, Visages & Veils & Sacred Icons - Symbolic and Ritual Objects (2005 & 2006) Artisans Center of Virginia
- Liminal, 2-person show at Turn of the Century Gallery, Berkeley, Calif. (with Rye Hudak)
- Sacred Mask - Sacred Space, MUSE Gallery, Tucson, Az., (with Catherine Nash)
- Matrilineage Symposium, Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York.
Bibliography
- The Song of Medusa (with Duncan Eagleson) (2000) Infinity Publishing ISBN 0-7414-0484-2
Articles
- The Mask of Sedna and Restoring the Balance, Coreopsis Journal of Myth, 2009
- The Masks of the Goddess - Awakened Woman, November 11, 2001
- Threads of the Spiderwoman - journal by Lauren Raine
- Making Sacred Masks - Goddess 2000 Project, Spiral Goddess
- Dancing the Masque of the Goddess - Awakened Woman July 1, 2002
- La Mariposa - Butterfly Gardeners' Association