In this blog we explore costume making and behind the scenes artistic creation and injury recovery. I share thoughts on artistic practice, personal and collective pain and the role of artistry as alchemy, as well as the documenting of my process in stages through photo and studio vlogs. The music is from another concept ep as yet unfinished and unreleased called Giza Plateau, beginning with a track called Life had just begun, followed by Giza Plateau the title track. The video features narration and text photo montage.
Resurrected Costume Making and Scene composition C Meeson 16.03.2025
I have only directly made costumes once before; with Oma for ‘The Call of Oma’ album the central narrator and Ancestral Guardian Messenger with a pre apocalyptic warning. I have constructed costume for my play By the Mandate of Heaven for The Minister and The Boddhisattva, for Grace in Grace and the Grail a ritualistic priestess-soaked rite with the song Her Story off Atmospherica for Sex Trafficked Women and children in Asia, a fundraiser with Anjali Senguptu’s Embracing Spirit, and Avatara the blue being off my first electro album Avatara and the Eternal Presence Orchestra. I mustn’t forget my first incarnation the Beggar Woman.
Segue or side tracked (rabbit hole Alice!)
THE HEALING ARTS
The art making has been, yet again, a way of healing, communion and coping with my physical state post injury. I do not wish to go into it. I’ve talked about my experience a little on socials with friends and family, but that’s it. Now is time to move on with things, as much as can be done, when it can be done. Let’s just say that all the intended blogs of last year didn’t happen due to limited capacity. I intend still to write those. I love my Dragon software, scribing is hard on the body, but all things begin with pen and paper.
In other periods of life, art has always been used to transform pain and suffering, and comment on the experience of life, with a sacred artistic alchemy practice. I look back on Mermaid sculptures I did with damaged hands in 1998 which nearly took my right guitar hand function away (I lost the fingerpicking dexterity). However, even in pain the creative impulse always says do; it will help the pathways heal. I concur, but as with martial arts you have to know your bodies limits.
INJURY RECOVERY
My current injuries were sustained during preproduction processes, planning, sketching and in gathering materials for construction in very early costume making. My injuries affected my work capacity a lot, so over the summer school holidays I tried to rest as much as I could, sigh….. we always have stuff to do with our hands and arms, so it is hard, like cook, bathe drive and dress ones self. These were and still are uncomfortable.
Just as I addressed my personal pain and reflected on the nature of what I’m working on, (universal themes/ global resurrection mythos), I find myself having periods reflecting on where it’s also about working to heal the collective psyche, to take these deeper archetypal themes, patterns, personages and legends, as I do, as a musical mythologist and just create from that place, letting all the data that has been input, then be output through the muse, guided by spirit, hence penning the term ‘archetypal alchemy’. The alchemy is within, the resolution is in ones’ soul and in the use of the artistic media and process. It all gets absorbed and held within the container of Self, fertilised by a greater vision, love/ wisdom and inner light.
COSMIC CLIMATE & THE COLLECTIVE PSYCHE
When I started making the headpieces and costumes and had my first accident was the night of a Comet outside. I have completed all but my costume for Resurrected on the visit of a 2nd comet in January 2024. I sort of have a thing for stars, I got to see Haileys Comet 1985, and Hale Bop 1997. We have a phenomenon called the Planet Parade going on at the time of writing. With art we traverse both the inner and outer universes.
I have found myself entering very deeply into the collective unconscious, crying intense bouts of deep, deep tears, wailing over the loss of life, of our collective global ancestries and for all life. It’s as if I am working for the world soul and witnessing its pain, whilst invoking its wisdom and capacity for healing. It’s like All Souls Lament wants to communicate about the deeper reality of loss of life, in all the wars, genocides, slaughters, suffering of famines plague and all deep soul laments and cries. Of all the souls who lay in watery tombs their bones returning to the ocean as their echoes live on in the waves. ALL SOULS LAMENT – RESURRECTION- It is a global myth in many forms. It tells of the reality of life beyond this earthly embodiment and of our deep spiritual gnosis on a collective level.
I scribble notes and draw simple pictures. I still don’t know if I can pull this off? I want to create a certain aesthetic, with some static scenes, highly symbolic and archetypal. Other scenes are ritualistic in nature and require lots of logistics beyond making costumes and composition of the scene. It has to all come through my head heart and hands to be an effective message. I find myself asking ‘Can I get away with a scene that feels almost sacrilegious to do? My reasoning is such symbolic ritual action is a way to contain the pain, contextualise it, transform it, release and bless it for the World Soul. To be yet again the inter-cessionary principle, the point where the suffering ceases- were love wisdom can change outcomes and turn darkness into light. It involves prayers for humanity and is a deeply spiritual level process. You can decide once the film clip is released. My intent is exploration of the rebirth resurrection myth, and the creative transmission in both music and story. Universal themes.
TO FILM
The Resurrected video requires a full room green screen, as well as location and composed scenes, potentially the need to use stock footage or borrow film as backgrounds for composites, and to blend them with some Creative Commons or archival footage. It’s not fully mapped. It has enough mapping to get one into the process and territory with ones tools of trade, then it takes over. Us artists just go along for the ride in awe of the mystery that wants to unfold though us, humbled that the universe thinks we have what it takes to do the job.
I am aiming to weave together a cross-cultural tapestry of mythic proportions, I don’t do simple, do I? I also have to consider costings for various scenes, production crew, safety, law and so forth. Working with Sean in video production between us we have multiple phones, Go Pros and of course Sean does amazing Drone work, so we intend to use them all. I am hoping that I can get a green screen room or construct it, if not, hiring one is in the vicinity of $250 an hour. My deficits are definitely in the understanding of light and in film tec, I’d love to do more Pd’s at Film summer school. I learnt about smart phone videography there and have done so since 2016 with, people say, good results, honing my vision and know how. It is always the art that teaches us.
CONTEMPLATION AND REFLECTION
I contemplate can I get away with a scene, that involves fire and transformation in my backyard? Why is it, when thinking of fire, that we have fear creep in? Almost as if the right to the sacred flame is forbidden for all of us, we rarely see public bonfires anymore. Yes, Australia one has to be careful but fire used to be a great community bonding element as well. Whilst at the same time, the forces who stripped the flame of the power of spirit away, have the ultimate means of destruction by nuclear fire. Fire has been used to clear land, maim, destroy, torture and persecute for thousands of years. Many innocent souls lost to hysteria and misguided intentions by power hungry dark souls. So, I stand in solidarity with every Woman burnt at the stake and every soul crucified on the cross. It is time to come of the cross of space and time- a new age dawns. You will see.
My fire is the fire of spirits urge to create life, to metamorphosise and transform the essence. The emergence of spirit as it triumphs over the flesh. Fire is an agent of transformation, no one escapes the trial by fire of the inner worlds or the dark night of the soul encounters. Without fire, the human race would have perished. Many would perish now because they cannot make fire. Without solar fire there is no warmth or life and yet our Sun is the ultimate bringer of destruction or transformation, setting the tone for the ages of man, civilisations and cycles determining the playing field for all life on Earth!
So, where are we at with making this video compilation documenting the journey so far? Some things have been shared on Instagram live in videos and pictures. I have compiled it all and it is now on Youtube to accompany this blog.
I cut feathers, hundreds of feathers, for my wings. My arms struggled intensely with tendinopathy and nerve damage, from the elbows radiating down forearm muscles, torn shoulder and bursa from the second fall. All headpieces are complete, wristbands are complete. I have made other props to go with it and painted them for the mummification scene. I have painted my Falcon headed bird mask. I have yet to create my skirt and the wings. I will be adding another layer bulking up Sean’s base costume and potentially adding a few more gold symbols to it. The costumes is the hardest part and longest process. So far we are looking at 6 months in process so far.
CAN I DO IT?
I don’t know, but I will most certainly give it everything I’ve got. As with all art that I make, everything I am and possess goes into it with a budget of basically nothing. I find it’s all about being patient and waiting for things to manifest through the aether and just getting on with it methodically, task after task until the job is done. I was amazed at the recent fitting with my best friend and how well the costume translated onto the body. It has a beautiful sacred energy of the divine feminine and we again found ourselves contemplating, is it okay to do this? I figure with the state of the world (of which I know very little at this time as I do not own or watch a television), I can bring in positive images of healing and it can only be a good thing restoring the divine feminine to her rightful place, the third person of the trinity, blessing the commons. But to do so I had to cut up a 20,000-dollar wedding dress gifted me!
So, enjoy this behind-the-scenes little video. Once the costumes are complete, they will not be shared in any capacity until the video comes out. I may share some location photos further down the road, with more blogs to follow as per last years intentions. I have other work that was produced, from university to release, namely my Sound design folio and also my Ambisonic work, as well as a couple of electronic music pieces. So, that will happen sometime 2025 or 2026. For now, it’s all about the pre-production planning and making of what is necessary to pull this grand vision off.
Much love, many blessings and thank you for supporting my work as an artist Catherine Meeson 16.03.2025