Lisa Thorpe

Filling in the Gaps: reRIGHTing the story

I get my inspirations for art making from lots of places. Sometimes a poem I’ve heard compels me to my art room, other times the simple delight of a bird on a branch or a flower in bloom is enough to get me in the maker mood. The inspiration is always a gift from the universe a tiny revelation that comes with it the responsibility to convey meaning or emotion, to spark curiosity, conversation or even controversy at times. I take this responsibility seriously I want to give my subjects be it bird or bloom or being their due. 

About a year ago my niece Francesca spent the summer with us to ride out the pandemic in a different habitat zone. We had wonderful talks about books and movies and religion and spirituality over cocktails on the porch. Somewhere in the mix of that summer she mentioned Na’amah of the Ark. Her reference for this was a children’s book Noah’s Wife: The Story of the Na’amah by Sandy Eisenberg Sasso. There are a couple of other childrens books that imagine Na’amah but there is very little other reference to her. She is often the unnamed wife of Noah. In the King James bible, she is only referred to as Noah’s wife and no other mention is made of her role or her responsibilities. There is a Jewish Orthodox Midrash commentary from over a thousand years ago in which Na’amah is named – the name is said to mean “pleasant” or “delightful”. Women are often painted in such words. But like the Na’amah of the children’s book I knew this woman had to be more than just a delightful, pleasant creature, she had to be bold and brave, resourceful, and resilient. Eisenberg Sasso’s Na’amah is the collector of seeds and plants. Well of course someone had to get them too for the earth to revive and repopulate!

My Na’amah is the saver and sower of seeds, giver and grower of life. Na’amah is the nurturer that allows all else to persist and prosper. In this legend she is Noah’s partner of the Ark An also more. My Na’amah is also the archetypal Mother Earth, Gaia to the Greeks, Jörð in Norse Myth.

I have been thinking about this Na’amah for a year now. My life has spun a year around the sun and Na’amah and her story has been spinning around my mind all this time. Sometimes she waited quietly in the background. While the uprooting of my life spun me round and round for months, she whispered softly to me now and then – more recently she rattled more resolutely to emerge. I knew I wanted this to be a large piece, she had existed in the background too long, a small piece wouldn’t do. I wanted her to relate to the small paper collage pieces I’d done (see Women of Wisdom & Spirit Guides). I envisioned this as a fabric collage because I wanted to reference the tradition of stitch as a feminine art that clothes and covers and comforts. Lots to ponder, but finally, these past two weeks the thinking about Na’amah moved into the making of Na’amah. She was a great puzzle to solve to create an Everywoman Earth Mother that rewrites a story she has been written out of. A tall order. I am pleased with the result. She is my Na’amah she can be yours too or make your own – even better. I want us all to work to repopulate the stories – so many have been left out. If you have another character of myth or history or imagination you want me to ponder, please tell me about her. She might rattle around in my mind for a year or two, but the most interesting things find their way out!