Lida Penkova/Daniel Doherty

Lida Penkova/Daniel Doherty
"Shaman's Apprentice"
Linocut, image size 9x12
edition 50
$200
50% donation to Save the Tiger Fund




Lida's wall hangings and Lida and Daniel's linocuts at the Hall Gallery this month, 208 C Street, Eureka.
Openings 6-9:00 Friday July 1st and Saturday July 2nd.
Open by appointment through July as well, 498-0059


"Shaman's Apprentice" is a combination of my interest in and experience with shamanism, "alternate realities", and fascination for Inuit art, especially their stone cuts. I lived in Mexico for many years where I was in a close and regular contact with a shaman-healer, participated in prehispanic ceremonies and healing procedures, and spending time with him and his family. This story is an invention which could go like this:A village boy who appears to be somewhat slow, dim-witted and definitely crazy to many others has a talent to "see" and feel beyond appearances of human behavior. In one of his dreams he sees himself half-human, half-animal (wolf) and pulled to wilderness by a similarly strange human-animal. Out of nowhere a shaman flies by, touches his head and lets him know about the boy's capacity to become a shaman and serve his community as such. But first he needs to learn the trade, the art of healing, to become responsible and understand the human mind. The lino doesn't tell you how the boy decides.....
 

I was born and raised in Czechoslovakia, today Czech Republic. I am a self-taught artist. I began to paint in my early fifties after moving to the US 14 years ago. I have lived in a number of societies and cultures, and worked as a psychotherapist and a researcher for many years. Art came to me as a way of being, as a meditation, as a life lived in silence, after those previous years of much thinking, talking, discussing, and analyzing. However, that first phase served the next; only now can I dedicate myself to creating magical spaces, telling stories, and figuring out textures and colors.

Creative influences have been many: ‘naive’, or ‘outsider’ artists (Art Brut, William Hawkins, Granma Moses, Henri Rousseau, etc.), Indian miniatures, Mexican bark paintings, Australian aboriginal artists, early Renaissance painters, etc.
 

This is my first show together with my husband Daniel Doherty who has been an artist all his life. We began to work on linocuts together only a few months ago.

Art Helps the Planet is a group of professional artists donating part of the proceeds from original art, print and card sales to animal rescue organizations.