Tierra del Sol Gallery presents Four Roots, an exhibition celebrating the magical works of Julia Hagen-Brenner, Marcella Kroll, Katie Mendoza and Cathy Ward. This collaboration between Tierra Studio artists and community-based disabled artists highlights inclusive visual language grounded in the divine feminine.
The divine feminine roots us to earth and the cosmos, emphasizing the intuitive, caring energy that is embodied in and through all things. Each artist signifies one of four elements in the zodiac and other ancient systems: earth, water, fire and air, the necessities for life, connection and meaning.
Julia Hagen-Brenner (earth sign) has worked out of Tierra Sunland Studios since 2017. Her circular punch rug portals channel the divine energies of the earth: the tree of life, mythical creatures who act as messengers for the goddess also known as Mother Nature. In addition to these figurative representations, Hagen-Brenner crafts the tools to engage these elemental aspects with handmade wands embellished with crystals, talismans and yarn that binds makers and worlds. These multilayered objects demonstrate her depth of understanding and communication through the divine spirit of the earth.
Marcella Kroll (water sign) is an important figure in the tarot and divination communities. Her knowledge and skill in esoteric traditions reverberates in her fusion of ancient iconographies with contemporary cultural language, particularly noted by her use of adornment as material. Focused on the four elements, yet rooted in water’s movement in and through liminality, Kroll creates portals to be ritually activated by the viewer for manifestation and protection. Her wearable protective capes ground body and spirit to traverse the elements and the ether, transmogrifying space and place with the help of the divine.
Katie Mendoza’s contributions to Four Roots illuminate three forms of the Triple Goddess: the maiden, the mother and the crone. Each seated figure represents the epochal influences of the goddess as future, the maker, nurturer and giver of life and the generational knowledge bearer, grandmotherly power of feminine energy. Mendoza (fire sign) has worked at the Tierra Upland Studios since 2014.
Cathy Ward (air sign) paints ink and watercolor oracles on paper, each ethereal, liminal, thoughtful and imbued with movement. She lives in London and has a long relationship with Tierra del Sol Gallery director Paige Wery, who recognizes both the temporal and eternal qualities of Ward’s oeuvre. Oracles are metaphorical portals, prophecies that look to the past and future, opening doorways to senses and essences greater than ourselves.
This collaborative force manifests in the interactive dome featured in the gallery. All four artists and elements contributed to its making, symbolizing the cooperative nature of the feminine as well as the care for the community in its experiential, healing form. Four Roots opens at Tierra del Sol Gallery in West Hollywood, CA, on Saturday, September 14th, with a reception from 6-8 p.m. The exhibition will be on view through November 2nd, 2024.
