CARLA GOLDBERG

Carla Goldberg: In my relationship between me, and my art, I see myself as a weaver of information because I am in actuality creating a new mythology. I paint about water and folklore mixed with science. Most of my art is about the Hudson River, which is a very important river in American History. There is not much out there specifically on Hudson River Goddesses, which saddens me greatly. There must have been a rich tradition of story telling but it seems to have gone unrecorded. I have found that there are stories out there that are found in various forms universally. In much the same way that my mixed media works are made up of multiple traditional and non-traditional elements, the global stories I find are altered and mix easily with local legends, history and river science to create these new goddess images. My logic behind this is as follows, “Since all rivers are connected via the oceans and world currents, river goddesses are present in all cultures and so they fit seamlessly into my local river and are reflected in the short stories or text that I display with my work.”

The Series I am currently working on, “The May Night Maidens” is derived from an old Russian Folktale about the Rusalki or water ghosts. Murderous intentions in the darkness by river’s edge, the May Night Maidens seek vengeance. Spurned by their lovers, they died violently, committing suicide by plunging into the river to drown their sorrow. Call them what you will, water ghosts, water spirits, succubus, mermaid demons, nymphs or sprites, by day these sisters of the river dwell at the bottom of the river and walk the banks by moonlight. Upon seeing handsome young men, they fascinate them with songs and dancing in the meadows, mesmerizing them and leading their doomed lovers away to the river bottom to live with them forever. But is it loneliness or vengeance that drives these women who were once so beautiful and innocent?

 In “The May Night Maidens”, I have continued my use of the fluidity of line and watery looking resin, which I am known for. My body of work travels in a sister path to rivers and other flowing waters which began several years ago in the series “Soundings” which concentrated on the landscape of the bottom of the Hudson river and it’s underwater topography and then continued in the series “Bodice of the Goddess” which focused mainly the lore of female river spirits.

“The May Night Maidens” goes further afield and explores Russian myth and the darker realm of the tragic and violent female spirits called the “Rusalki” or Drowned Maidens, which haunt the rivers and lakes throughout the world and across many cultures.

 Inspired by the writings of Pushkin and Gogol about the Rusalki and the Drowned Maidens or May Maidens which closely echo my own method of creating myth from local landscapes, I have found that resin lets me capture a three dimensional snapshot of the essence of flowing water in what has been described as a “liquid rhythm which flows and coils through my imagery”. Through the “May Night Maidens”, we get a glimpse of the last thing many an unwary traveler would see on a moonlit night.

Carla Goldberg, USA