When we last spoke with Durango artist Mariah Kaminsky, it was last June, and her painting “The Hug” had been chosen to be launched to the moon through The Lunar Codex/Artists on the Moon project as part of “The Nova Collection,” this past January as part of a time capsule that will remain there.
Now, Kaminsky is launching a new exhibition, this time focusing on celestial beings a little closer to home: Women. Her “Feminine Rising” series of oil paintings will be unveiled as a one-night pop-up exhibition July 29 at Durango Coffee Co., 730 Main Ave.
Kaminsky said the project began when she happened upon Pagosa Springs performer, costume designer and artist Adrienne Young’s work on Instagram last year and knew instantly that the two should collaborate.
“We got together a photo shoot with five models, all from the local area, over at her place in Pagosa,” Kaminsky said. “She basically designed all the styling and the headdresses for the shoot.”
At that point, Kaminsky said she wasn’t sure where she wanted to take the series, but as she began working, from the photos, a theme started to emerge.
If you go
WHAT: “Feminine Rising” Pop-Up Exhibition: A new painting series by Mariah Kaminsky.
WHEN: 5 p.m. July 29.
WHERE: Durango Coffee Co., 730 Main Ave.
MORE INFORMATION: All of the paintings in the series are for sale. For more information, visit mariahkaminsky.com and https://www.artsy.net/artist/mariah-kaminsky.
“Just as I was digging through the images and started painting, I kept thinking, ‘She looks like an island goddess’ ... I just kept thinking ‘island goddess,’ and I went, ‘Goddess, that’s interesting, so I started digging more into the goddess imagery and come to find out, all of these feelings that were coming out of that photo shoot and these amazing women I was working with, was this idea of the feminine rising. There’s this feeling that I’ve had for a while that this feminine energy is getting stronger.”
Once the goddess imagery was set in her mind, Kaminsky said she revisited all of the images from the photo shoot and came up with the idea to feature the Divine Feminine and her six archetypes.
Along with the paintings, the pop-up exhibition will also feature live music and a special unveiling of “The Queen” painting.
After the show at Durango Coffee Co., Kaminsky said the paintings will probably all go off to different parts of the country, which makes the pop-up exhibition a special event for her.
“They’re submitted to a lot of different things, so there’s a possibility that this is the one time I can show them all together. I just wanted to take that opportunity before they start one by one going different places – it’s mostly selfish: I just want to see them all together with all of the models – I think they’re all going to be there,” she said. “Or at least they’re all going to try to be there. That’s always super fun when you can have the models and people that participated with you there.”
katie@durangoherald.com
