SPIRIT EMISSARIES AND FORGOTTEN GODS
OCTOBER 29 - NOVEMBER 19

Cottonwood Center for the Arts is proud to present Spirit Emissaries and Forgotten Gods, a dynamic new show by Cottonwood artist Robyn Peterson, which presents a powerfully evocative installation of shamanic imagery paired with selected instrumental soundscapes.

Tapping the pan-cultural source of human mythology, psychology and religion, in a type of “artistic metaphysical archeology,” Peterson believes he created these works in partnership with “Beings from the Collective Unconscious that wanted to be seen. They are archetypal in nature and have perpetually reemerged from the human psyche throughout history in different forms.”

These mysterious figures, with intensely piercing eyes, are depicted in elaborate costumes with ancient masks and fetishes. The images (some as large as 5 feet by 6 feet) were constructed entirely from paper collage mounted on canvas with out the assistance of any computer technology.

Combined with soundscapes that elicit an intuitive sense of being present in a lost ritual cave or unknown temple, these works offer the viewer an opportunity to step outside of time and to encounter personifications of ancient energies that exist in all of us.

Peterson, who relocated to Colorado Springs from Boulder County, showed at Cottonwood back in May with Other Worlds in a Small Room. This, however, is the largest scale on which he has ever worked so far.