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.
———————————————————————————————————————
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.
————————————————————————————————–
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.
SANCTUARY 8
I wish you could see these in person. 
On May 19 we staged a photo session for the catalog. 
But these are 7 feet tall with 3-dimensional textures 
that no photo could capture.
Nevertheless, here are 11 panels on a 40 ft. wall.
We threw discarded shoes in front 
to echo shoes left behind
in the Holocaust, in slavery, 
and in journeys to salvation 
throughout history around the world.
On a separate wall 
we grouped 3 of the panels 
where children grasp at ropes.
 
More refugees will join them 
before this exhibit opens locally Sept. 24 
and even more will come after that. 
 
I figure on another year building “Sanctuary” 
as the crises continue around the world.
A scale model shows 
the panels on a chain link fence 
so viewers would walk beside them.
Each inch equals one foot
So the walls are around 8” tall
and this 5 1/2-inch doll 
gives a sense of perspective
I wish you could have.
 
New people next month – watch this space!
SANCTUARY 7
I set out to draw determination
mixed with anger
in a man who is also vulnerable
as he seeks refuge…
…leaning on a cane
(made of a stick from my yard).
Walking behind him,
his wife gazes to the future
though she is laden with two burlap bags…
…compared to the one he drags relentlessly
towards sanctuary.

____________________________________

I don’t know how these faces emerge.
They are not from live models or photos.
The charcoal moves until someone appears.
And then I refine the drawing with pastel.
This man holds up his child
(drawn before twine is added).
The baby’s tiny fingers made of clay
clutch the ropes.
 
This is the last of 3 panels where children
desperately grip at barriers.
But this baby is not alone:
His father protects him with one hand
while his other hand reaches
for sanctuary.

____________________________________

Madonna and Child:
It’s a classical triangle pose,
echoing a distant Renaissance.
But this Madonna
in her shawl of burlap bags
is seeking refuge.

Behind her walk these guys —
I call them “three unwise men”…
… planning to defend themselves
against guns
with only their sticks.
She has only the thin silk
swaddling her baby
and her belief
in sanctuary.
SANCTUARY 6

4 more children came this month

or were trapped on their way.

In the charcoal under-sketch
this boy seems safe.
But the rough twine…
…twisted across 
branded burlap bags…
…cut into the canvas where
the child’s hands can grab.
And now we see he is caught…
like the baby clutching ropes
last month.
Next, this preliminary sketch of a little girl
seems timeless in its softness.
Her friend’s worry seems eternal too.
Their faces are completed with pastel.
Then we realize:
The two little girls hold signs they made,
trying so hard for us to like them.
They break my heart.
Finally for this month,
a close-up of this sketch shows
how charcoal and pastel merge
to portray a baby…
…who only wants to go home
(seen in the preliminary cut-out canvas).
Mounted on a coffee bean bag,
Their story is revealed:
The baby doesn’t understand
why Mama took her and ran
with nothing but the clothes they wear
in search of sanctuary.
SANCTUARY 5
As I watched gallery visitors
experience the first part of “Sanctuary,”
I stared at these figures
hung together for the first time,
 and asked myself
who else would be on this journey?
I was taken by the baby with a bottle
and decided on a rhythm
of children without parents …
… expanding the emotional impact …
… as the tiny fingers
gripped the twine
that cut into the canvas.
The coffee bean bags will continue
as both background and trappings
until these travelers find sanctuary.
 
Creating this work took all I had in February.
Watch for more to come.
SANCTUARY 4
She wants to be pretty
in her necklace,
8 months pregnant,
laden with what matters
under her open hand:
her toothbrush and an old toy
for the baby
or herself.
She has no shoes but she’ll keep walking
to deliver the baby
in sanctuary.
He’s saying it will be better.
There are doctors where they’re going.
Her clasped hands
balance a bag of her dreams
with a map of the whole world.
*
 
Above the scenes
a baby’s brow is furrowed
as it drinks its bottle.
 
Beneath this child, the coffee bean bag
is stamped “PRODUCT OF HONDURAS.”
 
*
 
These are the final travelers for the installation at:
 
MuzeuMM Gallery
4817 W. Adams Blvd
Los Angeles 90016
Reception: Jan. 19 from 4 to 8 PM.
 
It’s a preview, around half of the 40 ft. exhibit you can see next fall.
 
The next blog in late January will show many of these installed!
SANCTUARY 3

Now come the men in this installation

carrying their children

to sanctuary.

This father will kneel on the gallery floor,

baggage on his back,

enfolding his child…

…both of them screaming.

His hands clutch the baby 

as its hand grabs onto him.

His watch stopped at 5:59 

when the guards took away his child…

…who dropped this toy dog.

The next man’s story is in his face

(drawn in charcoal and pastel on raw canvas

like most figures in this series).

He carries his daughter

wrapped in one of the burlap bags

used throughout this installation.

She’s cradled in his hands.

Her slim fingers hold the rough blanket 

as if it might protect her

But at the bottom of the canvas

he stands behind a barrier 

of jagged metal wires.

Will he find a way to bring her through

or is he handing her over 

for someone else to take 

to sanctuary?

SANCTUARY 2

When I saw these giant coffee bean bags

on “Artists Trading” at ShoeboxPR

I knew their texture could unite

the figures seeking sanctuary.

(Thank you, Virginia Broersma)

The impact will build as figures amass,

2 or 3 per month until summer.

In this one, a bean bag becomes

a basket carrying a child.

I wanted the woman to have dignity,

resolve, a way forward…

…without sentimentality.

So I gave her a cellphone.

(This detail also shows her dress

made of 2 dozen canvas pleats.)

The emotional heart is the baby

peeking out to a place

that might not welcome them.

Each piece is around 7 feet tall,

too big to photograph indoors,

so this one is on my backyard fence.

(The streaks are light coming through.)

The woman’s face – charcoal and pastel –

has a gentleness that belies her journey.

Combining drawing and pastel

allows the raw linen texture to show.

With one hand the child holds on to his mother…

…while the other hand, roped to the bag,

clutches a toy bunny.

Here is the emotional heart of this piece.

A ray of sun streamed over the fence

to guide them.