It is time for the voices of the ancient ones to return. The vision of the Apus is a return to the land. They have been the keeps of the ways of living, an evolution of a new collective. (Conversation with Dona Alahandrina, Altomesayok, July 2011)
This body of work is a reflection of encounters with the “Winged Beings,” while studying with Altomesayoks, Inka shamans living in the Sacred Mountains of Peru. Engagement at the mythic level has been explored through symbolic imagery. Painting has been a process of recapitulation, a way of circumambulating around memory to deepen meaning, shifting energetic experience into physical form via implicit knowing. The Winged Beings, or Apus, are mythic expressions of collective mountain spirits. They are different from angels in that they are part the living earth, Pachamama – not heaven.
“In ceremony, the Altomesayoqs have acquired the energetic capacity or power to call the Apu mountain spirits into actual physical manifestation. Through their capacity to contain energy or hold space, they serve as a gateway for the aspects of the spirits to emerge. They enable others who are present to enter into direct dialogues with the Apu spirits. The voices and energetic quality of the aspect of the Apu that appears reflects the temperament of the Altomesayoq who is serving as the gateway. While sitting in ceremonies with different Altomesayoqs, I observed the energy and the voices of the Apus shift from one of sweet benevolence to one of booming force depending on which Altomesayoq was performing the ceremony.(“Piercing the Veil: Lesson of the Inca Shamans,” Bryon, 2012.)”
