Tag Archives: altars

Finding Your Artistic Vocabulary

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Walking The Labyrinth, Lyn Belisle 2026

One of the questions I’m asked most often is, “How do you know what to make next?”

Most of my new work doesn’t begin with something completely new. It begins with something I already know.

This altar, Walking the Labyrinth, was created for the annual Celebration Circle Altar Exhibition at the San Antonio Art League + Museum. While the piece reflects the winding paths we all travel in life, it also reminded me that our artistic journeys are labyrinths of another kind. We circle back to familiar places, seeing them differently each time.

The wooden eggs in Walking the Labyrinth first appeared years ago in my early Encanto altars. At the time, I simply loved their quiet presence. Later I realized they had become symbols of possibility, mystery, and the things we carry before they’re ready to emerge.

The crows arrived later, but have persisted in my recent Crow Reliquaries.

The Crows brought with them ideas of witness, memory, and the threshold between worlds. Now it has found its way into the altar about the Labyrinth, quietly keeping watch over the traveler.

The serene faces…the arches…the vessels…the circles and spirals…each has surfaced again and again over the years. I don’t consciously decide to include them. They simply belong.

I think every artist develops this kind of visual vocabulary.

Writers have favorite words. Musicians return to familiar chords. Artists collect forms, symbols, colors, and materials that continue speaking to them long after a single project is finished.

Those recurring elements become more than design choices. They become archetypes—objects that carry meaning beyond themselves. They tell us what we’re trying to understand, what we’re returning to, and perhaps even what we’re devoted to.

One of the most revealing exercises is to look back through several years of your own work. What keeps reappearing? Birds? Circles? Windows? Maps? Hands? Fragments? Certain colors? Certain materials?

Those repetitions aren’t failures of imagination. They’re clues. They’re the visual language you’ve been quietly teaching yourself to speak.

I love the connection this has to my ongoing Objects of Devotion series because it suggests something I’ve come to believe: our symbols choose us as much as we choose them. We don’t manufacture an authentic artistic voice overnight. We discover it by noticing what insists on returning.

That’s a comforting (and important) thought for artists who sometimes worry they’re “doing the same thing again.” Perhaps the work isn’t repeating itself at all. Perhaps it’s deepening the conversation.

And perhaps those recurring forms—the crow, the egg, the vessel, the spiral, the face—are our own Objects of Devotion, patiently waiting for us to recognize what they’ve been trying to teach us all along.

~~Lyn

PS: Here’s the statement for the Celebration Circle Exhibition about Walking The Labyrinth – I want to think more about this winding path and find words in my personal creative vocabulary to see where these thoughts take me:

Walking the Labyrinth

Lyn Belisle, 2026
Earthenware, encaustic on wood, found objects

The labyrinth is one of humanity’s oldest symbols of pilgrimage. Unlike a maze, it offers a single path—one that winds inward before leading outward again. It reminds us that life’s journey is rarely direct. We circle through uncertainty, joy, grief, wonder, and renewal, gradually finding our way to the quiet center of ourselves. And then, transformed by what we have discovered, we begin the journey home.

This altar honors that timeless rhythm: birth, exploration, wisdom, and return. The crow, eggs, spiral, and watchful face are companions along the way, each representing mystery, transformation, memory, and new beginnings. Together they suggest that every stage of the journey holds its own sacred gifts.

Inscribed across the altar is a simple blessing that accompanies every traveler:

Go in peace.
Travel in safety.
Walk with courage.
Return with joy.

Whether we are setting out on a new adventure, navigating the labyrinth of daily life, or completing the final journey that returns us to the mystery from which we came, may these words remind us that every path—however winding—is worthy of trust.

Objects of Devotion

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. . . a new series of monthly workshops inspired by Encantos and the quiet, meaningful objects that shape a creative life

After writing about stepping back from Painting with Fire, I found myself reflecting on the arc of my own work—what has remained constant over the years, even as materials and methods have shifted.

But it was during my recent exhibition, Encantos, that something became especially clear to me.

As I worked on that body of clay, collage, and assemblage pieces—objects that felt both ancient and immediate—I began to recognize a deeper thread running through everything I make. There was a sense of connection to the past, to shared human symbols, to small, sacred objects that carry meaning across time and culture.

In that moment, I understood something I hadn’t fully named before.

Much of what I’ve created as a collagist and assemblage artist are, in essence, objects of devotion.

Not in a strictly religious sense, but in a deeply human one—a devotion to process, to memory, to meaning, and to the quiet relationship between the artist and the work.

That realization has led me to a new series of upcoming workshops.

I am designing a collection of twelve self-paced, three-hour workshops to be released approximately once a month on my Teachable site. The series is called, simply, OBJECTS OF DEVOTION.

We begin with: The Keeper of Fragments: A Devotional Archive Figure

These wall-mounted studio guardians combine elements of spirit dolls and boxes, layered collage, clay sculpture, and assemblage—brought together in a simplified, accessible way.

It is designed to help you focus on what you are truly devoted to in your art practice: your colors, your words, your meaningful fragments—the pieces that mark your journey.

This is a figure that not only watches over your space, but holds what you cannot throw away.

I’ve had a wonderful time creating the prototype and filming its emergence. It’s almost ready for prime time. It takes a little from the spirit dolls, the boxes, the Wanderers, the Neo-Santos, and adds the meaningful fragments from your personal creative practice.

The next workshop in the series will be: The Listening Vessel: Holding What Emerges in Stillness

Available in late May, this workshop invites you to create a small hand-formed vessel using plaster, paper, and natural materials—an object shaped as much by listening as by making.

Through simple, intuitive processes, you’ll build a form that gathers texture, memory, and meaning, allowing the materials to guide you as much as your hands do.

This vessel becomes a place of pause—a way of holding what is subtle, unspoken, and still emerging.

As with all Objects of Devotion, the focus is on simplicity, presence, and personal meaning. Each piece will be uniquely yours—a quiet companion in your creative space.

Other upcoming workshops will reflect my devotion to shrines and altars, talismans, Santos, pods and vessels, and narrative Ex-Votos.  I look forward to announcing the entire series.

Ultimately, this series called Objects of Devotion is about recognizing and building what resonates most deeply with your unique self—your own devotion to art-making which calls you back, again and again, to your creative practice.

Each workshop is both process-based and object-centered. We will create something tangible—something we can hold, share, revisit, and reinterpret over time.

These objects become metaphors of meaning, reflecting both your past and your present.

The workshops emphasize:

  • Simple forms explored through mixed-media techniques
  • Materials that are accessible and chosen with respect for the natural world
  • Processes that can be adapted and expanded into your own artistic language

Each workshop is affordably priced at $27 and is downloadable for you to keep.

You don’t need to commit to the entire series—simply choose the ones that resonate with you.

The first workshop, The Keeper of Fragments: A Devotional Archive Figure, will be available next week.

If you would like to be on the list to be the first to know about new workshops, just click here. 

I’m so looking forward to sharing this with you!!!

Altared Statements

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Altars as an art form embody profound spiritual and visual significance. They serve as sacred spaces where personal beliefs, cultural heritage, and artistic expression converge. Through intricate designs and meaningful symbolism, altars invite reflection, honor traditions, and create a powerful connection between the physical and the divine.

Example of an empty altar structure from Celebration Circle

Opening soon, on August 23rd, the San Antonio Art League is hosting Celebration Circle’s annual celebration of creativity in the exhibition known as “One People, Many Paths: Sacred Art of Altars.” Each year, emerging and established local artists are invited to share their own sparks of divine creativity by participating in the exhibition where 60+ duplicate boxes–each with identical dimensions–are created and distributed. Then, at the end of the closing reception, each altar receives a new home.

​I’ve participated in this Altar exhibition for many, many years – this is its 20th anniversary!

Here is my Altar for this year’s Celebration Circle fundraiser – it’s titled, “The Gift.”

There is a backstory, a myth about markmaking – see what you thihk:

The Gift: An Altar to Tsukuyomi’s Gurdian

Lyn Belisle, 2024

In ancient Japan, young Yumiko ventured deep into the forest one twilight and encountered a mystical Noh spirit with antlers, known as Tsukuyomi’s Guardian. The spirit’s presence was ethereal, its antlers adorned with intricate carvings that glowed with a celestial light. “I have chosen you,” the spirit whispered, “to receive the ancient art of creation.”

The spirit led Yumiko to an ancient ebony tree, its charred wood still warm from a celestial fire. “From this tree, we will create ink,” the spirit said. Together, they ground the burnt wood into a fine, black powder, mixing it with water to form glistening ink. Next, the spirit guided her to a grove of bamboo. “These stalks will become brushes,” it explained. They split the bamboo, shaping the fibers into bristles bound by slender threads.

Then, they journeyed to a field where the spirit showed Yumiko how to transform plant fibers into delicate, resilient paper. Soaking, pulping, and pressing the fibers, they created sheets as white as snow. With her sacred tools in hand, Yumiko knelt before the spirit. “Now, make your mark upon the world,” it urged.

Yumiko began to draw, creating symbols representing objects and emotions. Her first marks were of profound gratitude to the spirit. As dawn approached, the Noh spirit faded, whispering, “Share this gift, for in teaching others, you honor the spirit of creation.”

Yumiko returned to her village, her soul alight with the spirit’s wisdom. She taught her people the sacred arts, ensuring that the legacy of Tsukuyomi’s Guardian lived on, interwoven with the fabric of their daily lives, as eternal as the antlered spirit itself.

Previous Years

Most of my previous Altars for Celebration Circle have had backstories – here is last year’s altar about Xochiquetzal, the goddess of beauty and love in Mexican mythology, also holds the role of protector and patroness of birds.

This one, from the Altar Show two years ago, is called A Prayer for Rain:

As I look back on these, I see similar elements in all of them. For a time, I was working on a series of small altars, and may go back to that soon. It’s a wonderful way to choose, build, and meditate with your hands.

There is a lot of information out there in Cyberspace and in the library about making your own altar for your own purpose I like what Wemoon says about altars.

But if you REALLY want to get inspired, come to the Art League to see The Sacred Art of Altars!

  • The opening Meet the Artists Preview Party is Friday, August 23 from 5:30 – 7:30 pm.
  • The closing reception is Saturday, September 14 from  5:30 – 7:30 pm.

And if you want to be dazzled by the many concepts and creative ideas that artists have come up with for this show in the past, take this link and click on photos from the previous years of this wonderful exhibition.

 

 

Altar Update: The Guardian of the Golden Bough

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Done and delivered to Celebration Circle! Here is the finished altar for their silent auction during the month of September, and now I know why I needed to use the moss. The figure represents The King of the Wood from Sir James Frazer’s book, The Golden Bough (pub. 1890), which seeks to explain the roots of human religion, science and magic. Being an eccentric spiritual eclectic, it made sense to me to reflect my own private musings through this guy, The Guardian of the Golden Bough.

The completed piece

The completed piece

I had fun constructing him, and when I took him down to the collection place in Blue Star Art Complex, I got to see some of the other altars. They’ll all be photographed soon, so you can see them, too. Hope you can come to the fundraising event on Sept. 30th! Here are some other photos of Mr. Guardian (or maybe it’s Ms. Guardian?) And here’s a tip – if you have a Kindle and want to read The Golden Bough, it’s on Amazon for a free download!