SANCTUARY 18
SANCTUARY has always been symbolic.
Yes, it’s about the journey of refugees
but now we are all undone
in the winds of revolution.


Amidst the passion and action of protests…
…this traditional woman
only wants to protect her children.
She keeps her daughters in traditional clothes,
safely home she believes.
But this little boy loves his Lakers shirt,
proof that heroes who jump so high
they almost fly are possible,
somewhere he’s never seen.
And this kid, 7 or 8, is outta here
as soon as he’s old enough.
Mama won’t be able to stop him.
Or protect him. 
Making this piece involved a dress pattern.
Here it is on my studio table, ready for the backing.
The final piece is a cube, 3ft x 3ft x 3 ft. 
It represents the perfect balance 
this woman desperately wants 
to shelter her family.
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The second piece in June is “on series.”
SANCTUARY is a multi-part installation. 
Though I post individual structures 
this laundry place inhabits a context …
…where little girls…
…may seem hopeful.
The “water” is a painting on silk
re-purposed from my 2014 series,
and the metal ring came from a rotted wooden barrel.
I found the net in an alley.
It’s hung with clothes from a give-away bag.
The floor is used coffee bean burlap.
And with these humble materials
daily life goes on.
SANCTUARY 17
The second shelter in Sanctuary Part 3
is a refuge made of sticks and burlap 
like the simple hug we all need now.
This man emerged from charcoal 
and my job is to make him a place.
The armature inside the legs and arms 
is paper towel and toilet paper rolls,
nothing fancy or expensive here.
He waits on my workshop table
above the coffee bean bags on the floor.
I bent sticks with twine to make the arch of the shelter.
It’s drying on my back fence.
The structure is designed with duct tape on used cardboard. 
(The finished version is on foam core for strength).
Now he’s home.
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For the next shelter in May
I found paintings from my 2013 Fire series…
…reinterpreted now for refugees needing warmth. 
Also from years ago I found an abstract canvas
that didn’t fit any other project.
The flip side of that canvas was always red
and now it reflects the fire in a habitat.
The tent was constructed with foam core 
and a found metal pipe.
The paintings are positioned.
And the canvas is draped as a roof.
Flame tea-lights illuminate the people 
in their finished home.
SANCTUARY 16
As I begin Sanctuary Part 3
“shelter” attains a deeper meaning 
as we shelter in place 
and think of those who have no shelter.
 I always start with a rough charcoal sketch…
…later refined with chalk.
The child’s emotion looking up at his mother 
comes through the first sketch…
…later expanded on a scrap of raw linen.
This is a full sketch of the woman before adding… 
…her arms and hands. 
The armature is cardboard from paper towel rolls,
echoing the plain, essential needs of survivors,
humble materials… 
… clothed with the basic raw linen.
I attached the figures to structural beams 
wrapped with the same burlap and twine as in the rafts.
Nothing is fancy: That’s duct tape on a cardboard box.
The roof is made of used coffee bean bags,
the same as walking figures carried in Part One.
At the end, I added pottery for food
so they can shelter here.
SANCTUARY 15
Now we are at sea, isolated in our lifeboats.
So the rafts of Sanctuary are symbolic.
No real refugees cross great seas
with Grandma hanging clothes on a tiny raft.
Most travel on boats so crowded…
… that despite bravery…
…some sink.
Still, we arrive through rough waters.
How do we do it?
Some can hold on.
And some must be pulled from the sea.
This is the final piece in Sanctuary Part Two.
I had thought the rafts were complete.
Now I want the last work to honor
those who rescue others.
SANCTUARY 14
This month’s raft was difficult — 
Difficult to construct, 
with multiple figures in the water, hanging on,
difficult to deal with the subject,
difficult to feel.
The base is layered with roped logs
on a seaweed texture then topped with bark.
A mother reaches to pull up her child 
who grasps the braided rope of the raft
On another part of the raft 
this man…
…holds onto a rope
that might pull his family up.
Seen from above (as we would in a gallery)
this would be awfullydifficult for them.
SANCTUARY 13
A baby refugee drifted on a raft 
of bulrushes that grew along the Nile
in the Old Testament tale of Moses.
 
Well, bulrush grasses also grow in L. A. yards
where I found them, reminding me
simplicity can be strong.
This raft has only the shoes left by a child…
and the lush crowns of grass that remain.
Sanctuary Part Two is nearly complete
so I made a model of the gallery
where the rafts will be exhibited in July.
The scale is ½ inch = 1 foot.
The width represents 40 feet.
Of course these little stacks with blurry photos
can’t express the experience.
 
But the model showed me an area at the back
around 20 ft. wide and 10 feet deep
where the final element will go:
 
Capsized rafts.
Someone told me to make smiling happy people.
I do hope those traveling by water arrive at a sanctuary.
But some don’t. 
 
These 3 figures will be a small part of the capsized section,
faces down, their arms sunk into black fabric
that will cover the gallery floor like water.
 
Beyond them other figures will be pulled out of the sea
onto new rafts next month.
 
The rescues will be here soon!

SANCTUARY 12
In Sanctuary Part 2 the refugees escape on rafts 
from a huge black mural — fire, smoke, flying debris —
36 feet wide and 7 feet tall.
 
It’s made of two 18 foot canvases 
(the seam in the center won’t be visible)
photographed on trees in my yard where it doesn’t fit.
Half the left side folds behind a tree
And I promise the gallery will not have oranges.
Sigh. 
Please come see it on a big wall in July.
This detail hints at the gritty texture throughout.
Meanwhile, the refugees continue to flee.
A frightened child clutches bags stamped “product”
at the front of a double-mast raft…
…while these men struggle to row
on a separate mast far behind the child.
I tried to photograph the finished raft in my studio
but these desperate rigs need to be witnessed in context.
Next, here’s a work in progress:
This woman, laden with bags, 
holds out her palm (of clay) to visitors 
in the front of another double raft.
Behind her this precious family rides.
I love this detail of the woman’s hand
holding the baby’s foot.
These “logs” wrapped in burlap and twine
bordered by tree bark, bounded by rope 
will become the base of their raft…
…sailing away from a burning land
to sanctuary.
SANCTUARY 11
SANCTUARY PART ONE opens next month!
Please join me for the reception Sat., Sept. 28.
 
The beautiful 52 page catalog will sell there for just $25
and whatever you can donate to UNICEF.
 
Meanwhile SANCTUARY PART TWO has launched.
In Part One, refugees walk on land.
Part Two will be travel by sea on 20 rafts.
The figure in “Prayer for a Safe Passage”
kneels on a sail rigged to a raft.
Is she on her way or is this a memorial?
I begin by drawing using the same materials as Part One: 
charcoal on linen with coffee bean bags and clay hands.
Then I mount the canvas on a “raft”
constructed from foam pool noodles
wrapped in burlap, twine and rope on a plywood base.
Like most of the rafts this is almost 5 feet long and 5 feet high.
Seen from behind, the sail is nailed to a mast 
rigged to the base with rope.
The next raft, “Mama Tried to Bring Us”
expresses the mother’s hopefulness
though her children seem not as sure,
even the one who attempts to play
clinging to the rope (with clay fingers).
This view shows how the sail is roped 
to hooks embedded on the sides
and sticks from my yard became cross beams.
In the third of the first 3 rafts, 
 “Flag of the Travelers” replaces the sail
with an image of those who journeyed far away.
Maybe this is what a flag should be:
the people who live there, not their objects.
These three women have only the bags on their heads.
Finally, at the top of the flagpole
tiny clay hands pray
that travelers on all the seas
will make it safely to Sanctuary.
 
* 
 
17 more rafts will set sail before next summer!
SANCTUARY 10
The SANCTUARY catalog will be here soon
and I’m so proud of it I have to let you know.
It’s a beautiful 52-page collection
designed by the great Tony Pinto
and includes all 21 Sanctuary panels
with details and comments.
The introduction page tells 
why I had to make all this.
Catalogs are $50 each and 
we are donating $25 each to UNICEF.
This explains what UNICEF does around the world. 
They also have a focus on the Mexican border now.
The big show will be a 60 ft. installation at TAG Gallery. 
It runs Sept. 24 through Oct. 19.
You can buy the catalog at the reception
Sat., Sept. 28 from 5 to 8 PM. 
But why wait?
Email me at pamdouglaswords@aol.com
and pay by PayPal or mail me a check
and I will mail you one in August!
 
On behalf of UNICEF, thank you.
SANCTUARY 9
Inspiration is everywhere
unfortunately.
Stories and images of refugees reveal
grief, anger, courage and faith that
form the heart of “Sanctuary”.
 
This first of 3 new panels was inspired
by a photo from UNICEF where
an aid worker pleads for children in a crowd.
My drawing doesn’t look like the ad except for
one gesture.
I sketched that gesture, a hand held out: 
Can’t you help these little ones?
Then I constructed the hand in clay
to reach beyond the drawing.
In an earlier panel 
a man reaches beyond the ropes
in angry desperation for his own child.
Now I created a face 
(seen in the first rough sketch)
 
asking not for anger but compassion.
The finished panel mounted on burlap
marks the weight of coffee beans
as if these children are judged as commodities
of little value.
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Behold her strength at 7 feet tall.
(A photo can’t capture her stature.)
The volume that crowns her head
and the burlap billowing her arm
combine with the cloth holding her baby
to create a richness.
It contrasts with an early panel in this series.
The subject is similar but the baby’s basket is flat
and the woman seems impersonal in her dignity.
 
Comparing these two works 9 months apart
shows me how much this series has evolved.
The burlap is stamped from Tanzania
and bound for New Jersey.
That’s part of this series’ perspective:
The whole world must be the sanctuary.
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Maybe she’s from Syria or wherever
wires that once reinforced concrete 
litter the ground where she must escape.
These wires impale an earlier panel
as barriers to the man carrying his child.
Now the wires are open and they’ve caught
scraps of burlap from others going through.
I fashioned hands of clay to hold up her baggage.
(Here they are placed before being painted.)
She’s going to make it through.