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 Cover Art: "Man and Woman in Royan," Etching, 23W' x 29" (image), 1993.
© Judith J. Leidl, 1993.

NSCAD Library

M.F .A. FILE,

 2

and beast. I see great power and beauty in this "animal" union,
and this in tum reflects my own concern and affinity for nature.
Another important aspect of my work is its attempt to create a
personal myth about the origin and existence of the natural world.
In a sense, much of my work represents a return to a kind of
Garden of Eden; but here, animals and humans not only co-exist
in a state innocence but are really one and the same.
I also try to incorporate my interest in textiles into my work, by
drawing from, though not using directly, the old designs of
Europe and Asia, for example. Part of the allure of these designs
is found in their imperfection - mistakes are allowed to occur
which only serve to add to the work's beauty and richness.
Similarly, I try to make use of the imperfections that occur as
I create an etching. "Accidental" scratches, marks or lines which
at first occur at random, are often incorporated within the image,
sometimes leading to surprising insights.

Some examples of images that relate to this theme are: " Howling Dog and
Woman," "Two Figures," and "Flower with Figures Above and Below". However,
I am finding that - especially with more current work - I have a desire and
need to delve much more deeply into the personal, in effect, to explore aspects of
both the psyche and everyday life which may be difficult to face.
For example, the recently completed "Woman with Man and Child," stems from
an attempt to work through a personal crisis. In this image, I have tried to explore
and come to terms with issues of fertility/infertility, and in doing so, try to
honestly depict what I now see to be the essence of human reproduction. It
contains a powerful life/death/life cycle: Where life is conceived and exists, just
as easily - and as randomly - there can be death, either earlier or later (and
after that, possibly life again). In this image, I hope to present this dilemma as
neither happy nor sad, neither black nor white. The life/death/life aspect of
conception, birth, life and death, exists in all its inevitability, containing multiple
layers of joy, grief, apprehension, and so on. This image represents both a
beginning and a return: the latter in the sense that technically it encompasses my
initial use of strictly etching; the former in that it is the inception of a series of
personal psychologically complex, strictly black-and-white etchings.2
Included in this exhibition are three images that I had produced previous to my
entrance into the M.F.A. Program at N.S.C.A.D. I chose to show them because
they are precursors to this current body of work: They appear to foreshadow later
events. They are: "Howling Dog and Woman" (1989), "Woman in the Shadow
World" (1990) and "Female Surrounded by Fragmented Images" (1991). A brief
description of each is as follows:

 3

Judith J. Leidl, "Woman and Man with Child," Etching, 23W' x 32", 1994,
© Judith J. Leidl, 1994.

 4

"Howling Dog and Woman" is a reflection of the frightening and often menacing
qualities found in human beings. The female figure, with her threatening gesture
and facial characteristics takes on an almost war-like stance. The howling dog
beside her can be more loosely interpreted as the guardian that w~s of
impending danger and as one who potentially is far less of a threat, because of its
different mental abilities, than its human counterpart.3
"Woman in the Shadow World" represents an attempt to visually describe
isolation and fear by exploring the dark side of dreams versus the dark side of
reality. This description takes the form of a frame within a frame which both
isolates and protects the central female figure. The woman lives in an alternate
state both surrounded and trapped (in the form of malevolent beings), by the
nightmares of dreams and living nightmares.
James A. Hall, M.D., in Patterns of Dreaming: Jungian Techniques in Theory and
Practice, writes:
Jung proposed that the dream presents us with allegorical or
symbolic descriptions of the dreamer's unconscious psychological
situation as it is, rather than as a censored wish. The dream
attempts to reveal rather than conceal, and it will bring to the
fore any aspect in the attempt to help resolve life problems,
relationships, and emotional issues, as well as existential,
philosophic, and religious conflicts. . . . The subject-level
approach to dreams regards every detail, person, or object of the
dream as representational of an element of the dreamer's
psychological attitude. Nothing is considered to be haphazard,
accidental, or irrelevant. When properly understood, all details fit,
and each detail appears to be chosen to convey what needs to
reach the dreamer's awareness (when these details are translated
into terms that have meaning or emotional significance for the
dreamer, not terms from a fixed symbolism of what someone else
thinks the details ought to mean). 4

With "Woman in the Shadow World," the dark or negative side of both reality
and dreams (in the form of living nightmares and the nightmares of dreams) could
be seen then as potentially the flip side of the same coin. This image attempts to
come to terms with feelings of isolation and fear (living nightmares), which in
effect manifest themselves in the dream/nightmare. "Woman in the Shadow
World," could be seen as a visual representation of this dream presented here as
helping to reveal rather than conceal the emotional state of the dreamer. In doing
so it could be seen as a powerful and effective ways of dealing with these
negative feelings. On the other hand,
"Female Surrounded by Fragmented Images" is a visual exploration of memory.
The central female figure, who could be seen as either expecting or wanting to

 5

expect a child is at a definite crossroads. In an instant, she is plunged back into
the past, in effect literally surrounded by fragments of her memories of herself as
a child with her own mother, a scene which ultimately connects her to her present
indecision.
"Female Surrounded by Fragmented Images" is the first image that perhaps more
obviously refers to the notion of choice in helping to make this decision. This
etching is a starting point for a number of later images such as "Female Figure
with Dog," which attempts to delve further into questions of female identity. A
catalyst for this work came from an idea presented in Gloria Steinem's Revolution
from Within. One thought presented was that some women choose, instead of
actually giving birth to children, to give birth to themselves, their own nature, in
the form of self-exploration and/or creative expression.5 In "Female Figure with
Dog," I show the central female figure as being visibly pregnant with herself in
her endeavor to give life to her persona as an artist. In essence, she is trying to
find personal meaning through creative expression, rather than giving actual birth
to another. With this etching, I have tried to reveal some of the turmoil and
potential isolation that are sometimes a part of this choice, while at the same time
depicting the strength and determination of the woman who takes that path.
Ultimately, her decision is a difficult one, clearly unresolvable. The woman's
companion (and possibly an extension of herself), the howling dog, throws backs
his head in empathy.
"Figures from the Shadow World" directly references the earlier "Woman in the
Shadow World" in both title and, to a certain extent, imagery. In both cases, the
central figure is surrounded by malevolent beings, but in the former, the central
figure is not separated from them by a frame within a frame as in the latter. The
implication here is perhaps that, in being on the same plane as the creatures, she
in effect belongs to the shadow world - or, in this case, the nightmares of
dreams. Floating around the woman is a "fish-dog" (from a childhood nightmare)
as well as dog jaw-bones (recently found on a beach where I spent most of my
time as a child and adolescent). The image itself is surrounded by tom and
collaged decorative papers which serve as both a framing device and also as a
contrast with the dark inner world. However, I believe this etching could
potentially be just as effective without the collaged components, which is my
intention, as mentioned previously, for future work. Nevertheless, elements of the
collaged frame can be used descriptively, as is the case with "Woman in the
Shadow World." In this case, I decided to use the tom black paper as a means of
emphasizing the intrusive nature of the nightmare creatures. As Pat Austin wrote
in a review of a group exhibition of which this image was a part, "Up close
("Woman in the Shadow World") is a bedlam of stylized body parts, paper scraps,
and invasive textures tom and cut and glued into base and border, yet from a
distance the collaged result seems to be a rather pretty and benign cosy quilt."6
Clearly, the decorative element can, when used thoughtfully, add to the

 6

multiplicity and intent of the image, however, there is a very real danger of it
overwhelming the central idea thus rendering the whole thing "merely decorative."
I began using collage with etching in the previously mentioned, " Howling_ Dog
and Woman." The idea was to visually depict the emotion of aggression, in a
direct and powerful way without having to resort to the often indirect methods of
printmaking. This technique eventually allowed me to introduce both drawing and
collage into my printmaking practice, often combining the two, as in "Woman
with Dinosaur Bones." The dinosaur bones in the central part of the image are
enlarged in the border through the use of pen and ink. The outer border area, then,
can be seen as acting as a means of visually drawing the viewer into the central
narrative, which is multi-layered and therefore takes time to "read."
Marie Koehler-Vandergraaf, in an exhibition of which a number of earlier works
were a part, aptly described both the introduction of collage to the images as well
as content.
This current body of work breaks free of the rigid borders that
Leidl once employed: work that once appeared to be straight
etching is now mounted on beautiful papers, surrounded with
brilliant borders of etched, coloured or painted paper tom or cut
into shape. She might tear one print into strips and attach it to
another print as a border. Sometimes, as in Two Figures with
Blue Faces, she uses borders of brightly dyed, printed and
painted paper shaped like leaves; this border leaps off the central
image like drops of water shaken from a dog's back.
Leidl's work portrays an uncertain dream world; many of the
images are frightening. Animal/human creatures emerge sideways
and snarl or defy gravity as they plunge forward. Sometimes the
static decoration halts the forward rush, imprisons it; new borders
serve to restrain the dream, isolate it from our own physical
reality and indicate that the dream's richness and imaginative play
are worth the terror. The borders also imply ritual and rhythm
and refer to a less industrialized world where pattern is
appreciated for its own sake and rituals both allay fears and allow
them expression?

The extensive use of collage would eventually lead to the creation of very large
paper sculptures or murals, employing a myriad of mixed media techniques, of
which etching is one part only. In my first term at N.S.C.A.D., I completed three
of these. They are: "Two Figures in Violent Equilibrium" (1992), "Female Faces
with Figures in the Landscape" (1992), and "Flowers with Figures Above and
Below" (1992).
Edith Sullwold, in "Dream as Story," writes how,

 7

A dream is an event that captures the body, the imagination and
the soul. That is, the senses record the experience in sound and
sight, often accompanied by subtle movements of the body; the"
imagination provides the images, symbols, and story; and the
psyche or soul activates the energy to produce the dream. A
dream is also a dramatic event. The Greeks understood drama
profoundly, so much so that the theater was central in all their
major healing temples. They put on plays with exaggerated life
situations that could reflect, in a more subtle way, the lives of the
spectators. Everything in the Greek theater was bigger than life.
If you look at many of your dreams, they contain impossible
happenings. But if you reflect back on them, perhaps they give
you some insight into subtle aspects of your life you are
overlooking. To see them as drama, to see them as story, can be
another way to begin to capture more of their significance in
your life. 8

"Man and Woman in Royan" endeavors to present a universal life drama, through
a personal means, by examining the relationship between female and male. The
two central figures, the woman and man are clearly separated, yet also connected.
Like past images, this one is a means of self-exploration, and as such, has the
couple surrounded by figures from her past (the dog, the child, the adolescent).
Their future together is represented by images of fertility (the sperm, the foetus),
as well as images of death: The woman, who appears unaware, is being grasped
by the enormous skeletal talons of an unrevealed entity. This clutch could be
either foreshadowing the inevitable death of the woman herself or, more
specifically (and sooner), the death of her fertility. The leaping black dog on the
lower right, as in "Howling Dog and Woman," could be seen as warning of
impending danger, or foreshadowing death.
Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Ph.D., Jungian analyst and storyteller (cantadora), in her
recently published book, Women Who Run With the Wolves: Myths and Stories of
the Wild Woman Archetype, shows how, through what she calls "psychic
archeological digs" into the ruins of the female unconscious, the natural vitality
of woman can be restored. Over a period of twenty years, through her extensive
travels and research, she has gathered and compiled in her book multicultural
myths, fairy tales, folk tales and stories. One of these stories, "La Huesera"
("Bone Woman"), teaches about the transformative function of the psyche:
The sole work of La Huesera [Bone Woman] is the collecting of
bones. She is known to collect and preserve especially that which
is in danger of being lost to the world. Her cave is filled with the
bones of all manner of desert creatures: the deer, the rattlesnake,
the crow. But her specialty is said to be wolves

 8

She creeps and crawls and sifts through the montanas, mountains,
and arroyos, dry riverbeds, looking for wolf bones, and when she
has assembled an entire skeleton, when the last bone is in plac~
and the beautiful white sculpture of the creature is laid out before
her, she sits by the fire and thinks about what song she will sing.
And when she is sure, she stands over the criatura, raises her
arms over it, and sings out. That is when the rib bones and leg
bones of the wolf begin to flesh out and the creature becomes
furred. La Huesera [Bone Woman] sings some more, and more
of the creature comes into being; its tail curls upward, shaggy
and strong.
And La Huesera [Bone Woman] sings so deeply that the floor of
the desert shakes, and as she sings, the wolf opens its eyes, leaps
up, and runs away down the canyon.
Somewhere in its running, whether by the speed of its running,
or by splashing its way into a river, or by way of a ray of
sunlight or moonlight hitting it right in the side, the wolf is
suddenly transformed into a laughing woman who runs free
toward the horizon. 9

Clarissa Pinkola Estes interprets this myth by stating that:
We all begin as a bundle of bones lost somewhere in a desert, a
dismantled skeleton that lies under the sand. It is our work to
recover the parts. It is a painstaking process best done when the
shadows are just right, for it takes much looking. La Huesera
[Bone Woman] indicates what we are to look for - the
indestructible life force, the bones. 10

This powerful story was a catalyst for the creation of my own "Bone Woman,"
the central figure in .this exhibition. With the construction of this woman, I
attempted to reinterpret and reconstruct the story of La Huesera (Bone Woman)
by delving into "the ruins" of my own psyche. In this case, "Bone Woman" is part
woman, part dog or wolf, and also dinosaur. She represents both life, in that she
exists and is giving birth to a wolf figure and female figure, and death, in that she
is part dinosaur, an extinct species. Half human, half animal, she is a powerful
force who has become a personal archetype representing the innate instinctual self.
This image, along with the rest of this exhibition, is an attempt to explore the
notion that, through the understanding of both our dreams and our relationship to
animals (in the latter specifically how we are alike), can we come to comprehend
and therefore accept our own natures.

 9

Judith J. Leidl, "Three Figures with Tree," Etching, 23W' x 35~", 1993, © Judith
J. Leidl, 1993.

 I

L

Endnotes

Manuela Dunn Mascetti, The Song of Eve: An Illustrated Journey into the ·Myths,
Symbols, and Rituals of the Goddess (New York: Simon & Shuster, 1990), p. 15. ·
1

This series will delve further into issues of reproduction and death, by focusing an
specific issues like fertility/infertility; the relationship between mother/daughter, etc.
2

Barbara G. Walker, The Woman's Dictionary of Symbols and Sacred Objects (San
Francisco: Harper, 1988), pp. 370-371. The author writes that it appears that women first
domesticated the dog, as dogs were companions to the Goddess in many cultures "... long
before gods or men appeared with canine companions. In Babylon, the dog was the symbol of
the Fate Goddess under her name Gula, 'The Great Doctoress,' who could cure or cause
sickness as she wished. Dogs accompanied Hecate in Greece and the corresponding Queen of
the Afterworld in Persia ... Sirius, the Dog Star, was identified by the Greeks with the Great
God Pan, who Pindar called, 'the shape-shifting dog of the Great Goddess.' In northern
Europe, the heavenly moon dogs who carried away the dead were the children of the Goddess
Angurboda, 'the Hag of the Iran Wood,' who also mothered Hel. These were directly related
to the Hounds of Annun and the great black hounds with "eyes like saucers" leading the Wild
Hunt of Odin and his ghostly company. Because of their constant association with many
ancient versions of the Death Goddess, dogs have been everywhere credited with the ability to
see ghosts and other spirits who may be invisible to human eyes .... With the decline of
Goddess worship in the Middle East, the dog tended to be diabolized ... the frequency with
which dogs were cited as familiars to witches indicates not only that women never cleared to
love their canine pets, but also that the church continued to associate dogs with femaleoriented paganism. . . ."
3

James A. Hall, Patterns of Dreaming: Jungian Techniques in Theory and Practice
(Boston: Shamb Hala, 1991), pp. xv-xvi.
4

Gloria Steinem, Revolution from Within: A Book of Self Esteem (Boston: Little, Brown
and Company, 1992), n.p.
5

Pat Austin, Review of" Alberta Printmakers' Society/Northwest Print Council Exchange
Exhibition (Salem, Oregon: A. W. Bush Gallery, 1992), n.p.
6

Marie Koehler-Vandergraaf, Exhibition Catalogue for "Contemporary Artists in Nova
Scotia,'' Mount Saint Vincent University, July-August, 1992.
7

Charles Simpkinson and Anne Simpkinson, eds., Sacred Stories: A Celebration of the
Powers of Stories to Transform and Heal (San Francisco: Harper, 1993), p. 15.
8

C. Pinkola Estes, Women Who Run With the Wolves: Myths and Stories of the Wild
Woman Archetype (New York: Ballantine Books, 1992), pp. 27-28.
9

10

Ibid., p. 28.

 Bibliography

Austin, Pat. Review of' Alberta Printmakers' Society/Northwest Print Council
Exchange Exhibition. Salem, Oregon: A. W. Bush Gallery, n.d. ·
Hall, James A. Patterns of Dreaming: Jungian Techniques in Theory and
Practice. Boston: Shamb Hala, 1991.
Koehler-Vandergraaf, Marie. Exhibition Catalogue for "Contemporary Artists in
Nova Scotia." Mount Saint Vincent University, July-August, 1992.
Mascetti, Manuela Dunn. The Song of Eve: An Illustrated Journey into the Myths,
Symbols, and Rituals of the Goddess. New York: Simon & Shuster, 1990.
Pinkola Estes, C. Women Who Run With the Wolves: Myths and Stories of the
Wild Woman Archetype. New York: Ballantine Books, 1992.
Simpkinson, Charles, and Anne Simpkinson, eds. Sacred Stories: A Celebration
of the Powers of Stories to Transform and Heal. San Francisco: Harper,
1993.
Steinem, Gloria. Revolution from Within: A Book of Self Esteem. Boston: Little,
Brown and Company, 1992.
Walker, Barbara G. The Woman's Dictionary of Symbols and Sacred Objects. San
Francisco: Harper, 1988.

 Other Titles Searched

Campbell, Joseph. The Mythic Image. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press,
1974.
Chadwick, Whitney. Women Artists and the Surrealist Movement.
Thames and Hudson, 1985.

London:

Faludia, Susan. Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women. New
York: Crown Publishers, 1991.
Gimbutas, Marija. The Language of the Goddess. San Francisco: Harper and
Row, 1989.
Johnson, Buffie. Lady of the Beasts: Ancient Images of the Goddess and Her
Sacred Animals. San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1988.
Lawlor, Robert. Voices of the First Day: Awakening in the Aboriginal
Dreamtime. Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions International, 1991.
Masson, Jeffrey Moussaieff. A Dark Science: Women, Sexuality and Psychiatry
in the Nineteenth Century. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1986.
Walker, Barbara G. The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets.
Francisco: Harper and Row, 1983.

San

Wolf, Naomi. The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against
Women. New York: William Morrow and Company, 1991.

 Judith J. Leidl
List of Works

I.

Body of Statement:

1.

Cover Art, "Man and Woman in Royan," Etching, 231h" x 29" (image),
1993.

2.

"Woman and Man with Child," Etching, 231h'' x 32" (image), 1994.

3.

"Three Figures with Tree," Etching, 231h" x 351h" (image), 1993.

II.

End of Statement:

1.

"Two Figures," 1993, Etching/Collage, 38" x 241/.i", 1993.

2.

"Woman in the Shadow World," Etching/Collage, 30" x 221/.i," 1990.

3.

"Female Figure with Dog," Etching/Collage, 35" x 221h", 1993.

4.

"Figures from the Shadow World" Etching/Collage, 381h" x 25 3/4", 1993.

5.

"Two Figures in Violent Equilibrium," Drawing/Mixed Media, 58" x 39",
1992.

6.

"Flower with Figures Above and Below," Mixed Media, 69" x 49", 1992.

7.

"Woman with Dinosaur Bones," Etching/Mixed Media, 40" x 30", 1993.

8.

"Bone Woman," Mixed Media, 1 of 2, 85" x 35", 1993.