Zehra Dogan as the Shahmeran

Zehra Dogan is a Kurdish artist, journalist, activist, and feminist from the country of Turkey. For decades, Turkey has had a policy of suppressing Kurdish identity. Violence against Kurds in Turkey increased around 2015.

In 2017, Zehra Doğan was jailed for three years after being arrested on terrorism charges for her news reporting, as well as for sharing on social media an image of a painting she made of a Kurdish village destroyed by the Turkish military.

In November 2020, she showed works created in prison at a show in Istanbul, covered by ArtNet News.

I learned about Zehra while researching the Shahmeran, a mythical queen of snakes featured in Kurdish folklore. One of Zehra's works featured the Shahmeran. The Shahmeran holds the wisdom of the ages. She lives hidden in a cave in a secret garden filled with snakes. A mortal finds the cave and falls in love with Shahmeran. He promises to keep the cave secret. However, the king is ailing and is told that only the flesh of Shahmeran can heal him. Shahmeran's lover is followed and tortured until her location is revealed. She is slain...but she tricks everyone. She says her body is wisdom and life, while her head is death. Her lover eats a piece of her head, wanting to die of remorse. He gains her wisdom. The king and his advisors eat her body and die.

Shahmeran has recently become a symbol of resistance in against oppressive policies in Turkey. The Conversation reports that Shahmeran has appeared on a poster critical of Islam, accompanied by a "manifesto that called for respecting the rights of women, members of the LGBTQ community and nature itself."

In my painting, Shahmeran has the heads of Zehra Dogan, painting and speaking out even while imprisoned. Original and prints available from Saatchi Art.

Comments

Asherah

An inscription from Khirbet El-Qôm (near Jerusalem) dated to the 700s BCE and translated by archaeologist Judith Hadley reads, "Uriyahu the Rich wrote it. Blessed be Uriyahu by Yahweh for from his enemies by his Asherah he has saved him by Oniyahu by his Asherah and by his A[she]rah.” ( Source ) Asherah was the Great Goddess of the Ancient Near East. From this inscription and other evidence, it is surmised that Yahweh, the God of the Jews, once had a wife - Asherah. Asherah was also sometimes known as Astarte and was associated with lions and the planet Venus, like her relative, Ishtar/Inanna. Asherah's symbol was the tree of life, and her worship involved sacred groves and asherah poles. Asherah original painting available through Saatchi Art . Stickers, prints, and other merch available in shop or through RedBubble or Fine Art America. All of the Asherahs in my painting are based on figurines housed in the Isra...

Nut

Nut is one of the oldest goddesses in the Egyptian pantheon, Mother of Isis, Osiris, Set, and Nephthys. She swallows the Sun every evening and rebirths it every morning. She is the Goddess of the sky and all heavenly bodies, mother of the gods, she who holds a thousand souls. Her fingers and toes touch the four cardinal directions, north, south, east, and west. In her human depiction, she is represented by cat pose in yoga. Nut original painting available through Saatchi Art . Prints and merch available in shop or through RedBubble or Fine Art America . She is also sometimes represented as a cow, with her milk representing the heavenly river, the Milky Way. Interesting, cat and cow poses alternate in yoga practice. The first domestic cattle were bred from the wild aurochs. Both male and female aurochs had large horns. Modern Texas longhorns are thought to be a relatively close relation to the aurochs. I once slept ...

Sheela Na Gig and the Power of the Vagina

The Guardian published a piece on Sheela Na Gigs for International Women's Day on Monday. Here's a link. A few weeks ago, I painted two Sheelas. Found on churches throughout the British Isles and Europe, Sheela Na Gigs are "figurative carvings of naked women displaying an exaggerated vulva." There are over 100 documented examples just in Ireland. The carvings may be remnants of a pre-Christian mother goddess. They may also have been thought to ward off evil spirits. They're often found over doors or windows, and they're generally smiling. The two I have painted are from the Church of St. Mary and St. David at Kilpeck, Herefordshire, England and the Parish Church of Oaksey, Wiltshire. While I was researching the Sheelas I came across other related stories of, as the Guardian so deftly put it, "big vagina energy". The power of women (especially the nude form) to create life, protect it, or - conversely - take it away. My favorit...

Tanit, Great Goddess of Carthage

Tanit was the Great Goddess of Carthage. She was the chief deity of the wealthy African port city, located on the Mediterranean coast of what is now Tunisia. Tanit was a heavenly goddess of war, a "virginal" (unmarried) mother goddess and nurse, and, less specifically, a symbol of fertility. She is considered to be an avatar of Astarte/Asherah/Ishtar/Inanna/Anat, and was adopted by the Romans as Juno Caelestis. She may also be personified by legendary Etruscan queen Tanaquilo. Additionally, like Astarte, Tanit is a Goddess of the sea and sailors. Tanit is sometimes portrayed with the head of a lion, wearing a garment made of feathers. This fits with an identity related to the Great Mother Goddesses of the ancient Mediterranenan. Astarte, Asherah , Ishtar, and Inanna are all associated with lion imagery. The Burney Relief famously shows Ishtar or another Great Mother avatar with wings and feet reminiscent of a bird of prey. Ana...

Domnu

Domnu is a Goddess of southwest England - Cornwall. Yesterday I heard of her for the first time. The mother of the Dumnonii, the people who inhabited Cornwall and Devon from at least the Iron Age through the early Saxon period, her name means abyss or deep. The depictions of her I've found are all modern and interpret this as meaning deep sea. However, the people of Cornwall were miners. Hello, Poldark. Tin is one of key ingredients of bronze, and bronze age tin from Cornwall was traded throughout the ancient world. Thus, it has recently been suggested that Domnu is not a sea goddess. Rather, she is the goddess of the mines. ( source ). Domnu original painting, prints, and merch available in shop or through RedBubble or Fine Art America . And, apparently, the Goddess of the Mines interpretation has been suggested in the past as well.. I just found a reference to Domnu in a 1922 book, Ancient Man in Brit...

Branwen, Reinterpreted

I started painting Goddesses in December 2020 as part of a Goddess art challenge, one Goddess per day from a prompt list. Many were new to me, so I had to research. Branwen was Goddess #7. Her story was mostly about her brother, Bran, as was my Branwen painting . She ended up dead of a broken heart. Death by patriarchy. After I had read more feminist angles, I repainted Branwen, and referenced an article by Judith Shaw, reinterpreting her (included in link above). It was a better interpretation than my first, but, I just read another section of The Living Goddesses by Marija Gimbutas , and I need to reinterpret her again. Branwen with her white raven, in front of Cadair Bronwen. Original painting, prints, and merch available in shop or through RedBubble or Fine Art America . Branwen is associated with the white raven. She is a Welsh goddess of sovereignty, and in the landscape she is represented by Cadair Bronwen, a rounded mo...

Echoing Multiverse

Search This Blog