Page 84 - Dark Matter Women Witnessing

spirit of my work.

Like all artists, I take pride in my materials. Anything can be a material for making art – even

tears. I list tears as a ‘material’ on my website. Tears are grace that flow from pain. Tears are

the grace that leads to joy... Tears are both petits trucs (ingenious forms of creativity) and

have become petites amies (literally little friends).

My love affair with le petit goes back to the France of my childhood when I was captivated by

a riddle: Tout ce qui est petit est gentil; tout ce qui est grand est charmant; tout ce qui est

moyen est bien. The literal translation is not quite as enchantingly onomatopoetic. “everything

that’s small is kind and everything that’s big is charming; everything that’s inbetween is good.”

My love for the small crept into my performances when children's shoes became one of my

'materials.' This wonderful association began with a pair of white Mary Jane shoes. They were

the first'gift' I received from the river when I set out on The Great Cleansing of the Rio

Grande, a ritual performance I did monthly from 1987 to 1994. When I realized the vast threat

to our waters and what this meant for the Earth, my heart broke. Out of this brokenness, my

heart became a huge delta emptying its precious (yet to this point unknown) sediments into

the sea of my being, and a sudden inspiration to speak on Her behalf was released. As I

'walked' the river (I began with the nearly dry Santa Fe River, walking my way toward The

Great River), I received many 'gifts' beyond the trash that I was collecting, sometimes

unspeakable trash such as syringes or dildos. Perhaps the most surprising find was a statue

of Jesus which ended up being exhibited among other found objects to tell the story of the

forlorn river. Shoes were common, however, and their size increased as time passed, a fact

that did not go unnoticed. It is true, I did a lot of growing up during the seven years of my river

performance. Undoubtedly, I had found my true mother.

The little white Mary Jane shoes made me step into one creative period, as years later, a pair

of shiny red patent leather shoes, 'winking' at me from a thrift shop shelf, laid out another

round of work. They inspired the second version of Tears of the World. In its original

incarnation, Tears of the World was a one-week performance/vigil which I did in the winter of

2001 on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the first bombing of Iraq. My devotional

watch was simple. I stood on the Santa Fe Plaza in front of the Soldiers' Monument for