New art show in Santa Monica explores the ancient symbols of faith that lead us all to the same place
Last Sunday saw the first convergence of Easter, Passover and Ramadan for 30 years, which is perhaps the perfect symbolism for an art exhibit currently on view at the Santa Monica Airport.
Organized under the auspices of the 18th Street Arts Center, Collective Acts of Peace is a selection of projects with the state aim of ‘exploring different embraces of the creative mind in the midst of an endless global pandemic. The exhibition highlights the connections among creatives who strive to make this a better world for all living beings, humans and non-humans alike.’ The exhibit is a melange of images from all the major religions and highlights the interconnectedness of us all, no matter what our beliefs and backgrounds.
Among the artists featured is Julia Michelle Dawson, whose collection is titled “Finding Faith in the Abstract”. One of the most striking of her works is Gudrun’s Cross, named after Julia’s late Icelandic mother.
“The inspiration for these paintings felt like a gift, a gift from my departed mother,” says Julia. “After her funeral, I made 5×7 little paintings of white crosses with blue/green backgrounds for the people who helped me with the service. There were twelve of them. When I pushed them together on my drafting table for them to dry, they created a beautiful abstract of which I had no intent. I decided to expand them and do the same with other major religious symbols. This is how “Finding Faith in the Abstract” came to be.”
Julia describes herself as an artist, author and adventurer. Her open mind and heart owe at least a little to her father, an Englishman from West Sussex who met Gudrun on a round-the-world cruise. The couple had their first date in Tokyo before moving to California. Julia was born in Napa and raised a true Californian with strong British roots. She loves to visit England when she can, and lists London’s Green Park as her favorite place to visit because that’s where her then-infant son took his first steps.
“What is most interesting to me about the public’s reaction to my work is that how surprising it can be,” Julia told us this week.
“My father, who is suffering from Alzheimer’s, looked at the Gudrun’s Cross image and said it reminded him of that famous line from The Sound of Music, – ‘When the Lord closes a door, somewhere he opens a window.’
Another striking image features a field of sunflowers with sky of fish-shaped clouds – a reference to the secret symbol of Christianity in the first century AD when the religion was outlawed. When two strangers met on the road and wondered if the other was Christian, one would draw an arch in the dirt. If the second person finished the drawing of a fish by creating another intersecting arch, they knew they were amongst friends. The symbol of the fish was used by Greeks, Romans, and pagans so the drawing in the sand created little suspicion.
“Because of times in which we live, this image has drawn many responses,” said Julia. “Most commonly it’s ‘you are doing this for Ukraine, right?’. Only then did I realize that the yellow and blue palette and the Sunflowers (the national flower of that country) made the Ukrainian connection so strong.”
And then there is the religious symbol whose hijacking is perhaps the most egregious: the Swastika. For thousands of years prior to the time of Hitler, the spiraling four-legged cross was a symbol of divinity and spirituality in Indic religions, including Native Americans and Buddhists. Julia’s interpretation (right) takes the symbol back to it’s traditional roots.
“Hitler hijacked the symbol, flipped it around and gave it the opposite meaning. I think there is one thing we can all agree upon, we all wish he was admitted to art school, if he had, maybe the middle of the 20th century would have been a more peaceful place,” Julia added.
The exhibit is on view in the Slipstream Galleries 18th Street Arts Center’s Airport Campus (3026 Airport Ave, Santa Monica) now until June 4, 2022. There will be a reception featuring many of the featured artists on Saturday, May 21st from 5-8pm.
