Glitter W.A.S.P. is on a Secret Glitteracy Mission this month, waving her sparkling diamond wand and championing her cause of “Glitteracy for All!” She will no doubt have exciting tales of her adventures to share upon her return.
In the meantime, she has appointed Wildwood Mystic to be the acting Cosmic Cowgirl Glitteracy Spokeswoman for August.
Guest Writer: Wildwood Mystic, aka Marie Howell
Spellbound. Intrigued. Mesmerized. When I recently stood before the art of Marilyn Radzat at the Chalk Farm Gallery in Santa Fe, all of these feelings and more described my entry into a magical land of visual delight: a place of exquisite creatures who speak without words of glorious fantasy worlds and enchanting possibilities. They are cloaked in layers of imagination that sparkled in the light and also into the depths of my heart. I practically swooned at their radiance and devoured every detail about them provided by the gallery representative. I was in artist bliss.
The first thing I did back at our hotel was to visit Marilyn’s gorgeous website. (Give yourself the gift
of viewing her intoxicating site-soon-it’s a journey sure to leave you awe-struck.) After immersing myself in her site, I felt compelled to reach out to Marilyn personally and, for the first time in my adult life, wrote an email “fan letter” of sorts, describing to Marilyn the impact of her work on me and my creative vision. She graciously responded and we’ve continued to communicate. Eventually, this interview developed and Marilyn even became one of our newest Cosmic Cowgirls! She has already taken an in-person course with Shiloh Sophia and plans to take more. The synchronicities of our “meeting” were surely arranged by one of Marilyn’s delightful fairy goddesses who’s a Cosmic Cowgirl in disguise!
Marilyn shares that she has been creating art for over 45 years “because it stabilizes me. The act and art of creating is my meditation and my deepest connection to my spirit. I create art because I 
have to…I need to…I love to… and it makes me happy. She describes her work as “assemblage: a sculptural composition consisting of an arrangement of miscellaneous objects or found materials. Whether it be in the art doll form or on a wall piece, what I love to do is find interesting bits and pieces of what I call ‘treasures’ and combine them in a way that speaks a message of sorts. The message is usually an invitation to enter into a thought or space of inspiration. My use of different materials comes from my willingness to experiment. A trip to a hardware store always opens new pathways, as does, of course, a trip to a junk store or flea market. Seeing with ‘artist’s eyes’ means seeing the possibility of uses outside of the box of what they are traditionally meant for…It’s always good to press one’s self by using a new material. The downfall of my artist’s spirit is in too often staying with what I know and with what I have become comfortable.”
Marilyn is a self-taught artist “from the practice of hours, days and years of sculpting. For a period of 10 years, I sculpted a new piece every evening and was in the studio costuming every day, 6 days a week. I became passionate about learning to sculpt and improving my skills and I took my clay and tools with me everywhere I went. I was obsessed with polymer clay.” As she compared her work to that of other artists at art doll shows, she felt empowered “to get better in my skill. It was always uncomfortable, but resulted in forwarding my abilities. Not having training helped me, in that I had no rules to be limited by. I experimented and learned by trial and error. However, I do see where training can move one along faster and I think with the onset of online classes, this knowledge is easily at one’s fingertips.”
(Marilyn has been teaching online for 5 years now. Details can be found at A for Artistic online classes or at That Creative Place.com.)
Marilyn is also a Reiki Master whose vision and intention as an artist is to “touch another’s spirit, whether that be through inspiration, or a connection of color, or words, or form.” Her work has “always been rooted in fantasy, magic and/or spirituality” and she has “always been drawn to using symbols to speak a message or offer an invitation to explore deeper.” Marilyn incorporates the sacred Reiki healing symbols, for which she has great respect, into her art. She believes their energy enters her works, opening doors to higher levels of manifestation and awareness and making it available to those who are near it.
Marilyn’s expertise and passions include sculpting figural forms and experimentation with various polymer clays. She notes that her art has evolved, beginning with her portrayal of children when she herself was a young mother. She then moved into fantasy art “because of the freedom it allowed me. I created Rabbit Princes, Deer Princes, Old Wizards, Father Christmas, and Wise Crones with sculpted heads, hands, and feet, bodies of wire and fabric, and costumed in antique fabrics of silk velvet and embroidered metallic laces, which I had a passion for collecting. Finding the fabulous antique fabrics set my mind spinning with inspiration. These pieces usually stood about 3 – 5 feet tall.”
A move to Hawaii and its humid air forced her to revamp her work, substituting clay for her former cloth and wire art doll bodies. Sea glass found on beach treasure hunts soon adorned Marilyn’s work and her transition to “hardscape” designs began. Italian mosaic tiles eventually gave an added dimension to her work.
Meeting and studying with a Taoist master inspired the use of hand symbols into her pieces and
they became more than art dolls. “They became Blessing Art.” Marilyn says her sculpting began to be “less of a focal point and more of a canvas upon which I could embellish and show the treasures that I collected” such as seed pods, shells, and bones.
Her advice to new artists is to focus on an attitude she adopted early in her career, “that what came through my fingers was a gift to me. This simple point of view allowed me to be grateful rather than critical, and, I believe, shifted my whole experience of sculpting. The critical mind can stop us so easily. If you realize that you are being led, step by step, and that your art has something to say to you if you will listen, the creative process becomes an adventure.”
She also suggests taking classes and to “always have the intention of creating from your own personal style. It does take time to develop your own style, but if you do what you love, not what is expected or is the trend of the moment, you will develop your own unique work. Be patient and kind to yourself. Know that you are precious and unique. Intention and intuition will take you far. Trust in the process…It’s difficult to venture into the unknown and undiscovered. In art, as in life, this is exactly what I know I must do…step out of the comfortable…step into not knowing. Therein lies the excitement of discovery and of growing as an artist and as a person. The journey through self-expression is a wonderful journey into knowing oneself. It is a fantastic game board on which to play Life. It has its ups and downs, but the journey and one’s personal growth are always worth it.”
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Guest Author Marie Howell (“Wildwood Mystic”) is a painter, sculptural collage artist, teacher, and writer whose blog http://ariteofpassageinpaint.com/ shares her creative vision and practice with hundreds across the country. Her work invites you into a profound journey of the heart and an inner knowing of grace and beauty. She is passionate about inviting others to a discovery of a relationship with the sacred feminine and prayerfully creates her art into being with that intention. Her art is featured on Fine Art America: Marie Howell Gallery and is on display at the Works of Artists Gallery in Phoenix as well as Shadow Rock UCC Church.
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