We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Lucile Henderson. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Lucile below.

Lucile , appreciate you joining us today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

Much of my inspiration comes from observation of outer and inner nature. The outer nature of the natural world inspires me — the way rocks form, the texture of moss, caverned trees, the way water can twist… The inner world–a landscape I continue to purify so that creative channeling can arise. The imagery I am enticed to make is of beings that have found their empowerment and sense of harmony with nature. A trait we are encouraged to forget in this rapid and often oppressive conditioning… my goddesses are an offering to proliferate peace as we walk through to our vital source. The symbols my deities are adorned with, the positions their bodies carry, and the amulets they surround themselves with are all purposeful. They help me communicate an ancient message of reverence for the earth I and most need to be reminded of. My art practice and my spiritual practice are fused. I started doing both consistently at the same time. My work has become a reflection of spiritual truths I was finding: respect for the earth mother and its elements, energetic currents as real and tangible, wombs as portals to our power. The sculpted beings are often part human part volcanic, aquatic, cosmic, mountainous, ancient. Designed to visually communicate the interwebbing of earthen and human. Wherein on their bodies you will sometimes find line work coursing in different directions–representing the unseen but deeply felt energetic currents activated and pulsating through us. The wombs of my beings are often a center point. Sometimes serving as a vessel to hold water or herbs, a fireplace to hold a flame, a crescent moon growing a child… Birthing these visually empowered goddesses rejuvenates my wellspring of creativity. It is my hope that upon gazing at the figures one feels a connection to an ancient part of themselves.

Lucile , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I am called lucile (of-light). I am a sculptress sprouting in Oakland California. And I am empowered to create goddesses that manifest again aspects of spirit that are culturally neglected. The sculpted deities address birthing as portal weaving, reverence of nature, menstruation as clairvoyance, astral ancestral kinections, and further.

I learned how to make ceramic sculptures consistently over the summer months from the ages of five to fifteen at Studio One Art Center in Oakland. I loved the malleability of clay and the simplicity with which I could make an object that resembled real-world items or the worlds of my dreams. When I was twenty-one I learned qi gong, a movement mediation that opens your energetic currents and allows for fresh and vital energy to course through you. The womb is a focus in this practice–called the energy ocean in the lineage–it stores your primordial life force. My father taught me this movement meditation during a time I needed a shift in my perspective on life. He has been a practitioner of the lineage for twenty-eight years and in learning from him I found myself coming back into my body–discovering positions that made me feel empowered. These are the positions I pull from when I sculpt. I am intentional about how my goddesses carry themselves and what auric freequency they exude: determination, strength, wholeness, serenity.

Currently, I have been working towards making a series of artwork honoring menstruation. Throughout the continued time it is taking to complete this series and share it with the public in exhibition, I have been selling goddess sculptures I have created over the past four years to support my living. I have also been making personalized commissions for collectors interested in sculpture within the worlds I am building that have parts of themselves present. Commissions are a service I offer to the public for anyone interested in having a totem in their home that visually emits an empowering energy connected to earthen and cosmic intelligence. I would enjoy crafting one for you if this offering speaks to your inner-senses.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

I find the images artists bring forth into the world to be an act of conjuring and multiplying a certain reality into our present moment. There is a responsibility, in my heart, to be intentional about what we are calling into our world. This is why I intentionally choose to disperse imagery of the liberated, the harmonized, and the empowered. We all need fortification in these areas as we continue to struggle with habitual violence versus resolution. My beings are a way I proliferate liberation, harmony, and empowerment to the global community.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

I enjoy the process of working with clay. In my reality, the material is alive and a conduit for channeling the earths’ messages. And so the earth does speak through the clay. Showing me how it would like to be formed by nudging me in certain directions. Following a curve of a feeling until it rests in sight. I find my art practice to be in collaboration with the creative universal life force, my hands, my heart, and the being that wants to be birthed forth. It is serendipitous and I love that feeling. I get quenched by it. I also enjoy seeing what the fire has to say. When it is time to put the clay in the kiln to harden, fortify, and purify itself through elemental flame–the heat chooses its final surface colors and textures. How the fire paints on the glaze during the transmutation process of firing leaves me in anticipation to see the result. Often the glaze looks like it is a current of water, as if it was stopped in the middle of forming a wave. This often reminds me of how ceramics is imbued with the energetic impact of elemental earth, fire, and water — vibrationally allowing the piece to be a cleansing talisman and tool.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.lucilehenderson.com
• Instagram: @lucile_art_
• Other: vimeo: https://vimeo.com/lucilehenderson

Image Credits

Lucile Henderson