Visionary Sculptures
Mirtala's evocative forms illuminate life's mysteries.
Our soul needs food as much as our body, or more so, and I think the function of the artist is to feed that part of us. " These words of Mirtala, the New England-based visionary sculptor, best convey the motivating force behind her unique and inspiring creations.
Although the challenge of any sculptor is to take a piece of inert material and through the power of thought to transform it into a meaningful form, Mirtala's work displays far more than the mere seasoned skill of a professional. Her bronze sculptures allow the viewer to see beyond form into the language of light and shadow, to the reality of intangible truths. Through the use of pilgrim-like figures representative of humanity, she traces the struggles and joys of the search to understand life's unknowns. Her work assures us that peace is possible, that life and death need not be unsolvable mysteries.
One of Mirtala' s skills is her ability to draw the viewer into her work, involving the onlooker as a participant. Suddenly, "you" become the solitary person walking toward light, "you" climb the stairs and reach for tomorrow, "you" burst free from the restrictions of prejudice and fear. The more you gaze at the sculptures, the more you become involved, as if each piece were a focal point for the soul, an introduction to meditation.
Mirtala's themes encompass both sides of existence-the visible and the invisible. Her creations are provocative and challenging. The original models were seldom over two feet but some have been enlarged to twice that size. Each is a compact piece, simple and exquisitely proportioned, that incorporates the opening of space within the limitations of cast bronze. Symbolic and at the same time personal, they stretch the mind while freeing the emotions.
On a recent visit to Mirtala's townhouse in Cambridge, Mass., I followed her downstairs to where most of her work was assembled. (All of her molds and technical equipment are kept in a studio at another location.) Although various pieces were on display at galleries, enough of a collection was on hand for me to gain an overall perspective of her work.
My response to what I saw surprised me----I wanted to scream and cry at the same time. My heart seemed to skip beats and breath came in spurts. This embarrassed me until Mirtala described the profound way many other people have reacted to her work. "It is usually those exploring life's spiritual aspects or needing to re-establish a sense of sacredness who have such reactions," she explained. For this reason her sculpture has proved unusually helpful in calming those about to die, especially within the hospice environment.
Mirtala told of one occasion when a woman, who had gone through a near-death experience, grabbed her arm after seeing images of the sculpture and cried:
"That's what I experienced when I died, that's what it's all about!" Hearing this reassured me for I, too, am a near-death survivor, having lived through three such events in 1977 during complications from a miscarriage, blood clots, and phlebitis. Even though a decade has passed since my own experiences, all that had once happened instantly returned, and I seemed to "enter" each piece with a sense of familiarity as if I too, were privy to life's greatest mysteries.
Mirtala is a moderately tall, slender woman who projects a sporty elegance. Her short brown hair looks attractive no matter what she is doing-no small feat considering her rigorous schedule of meetings, art shows, public talks, and every spare second spent outdoors enjoying wind, rain, and sun. She is passionate in her love of nature and exuberant in her readiness to pursue whatever adventure might come her way. She seems to speed through life, sometimes running to keep up, yet when she pauses or sits her movements become a study in casual grace and serenity.
Mirtala's slight accent hints at a past that spanned several eras of political turmoil and unrest throughout Russia and Europe before she and her mother and sister could gain passage to the United States. She says that she grew up without ' security or possessions, discovering while still young that the center of all peace, the resonance of the divine, resides within the heart, of each individual. She no longer discusses much of her past, not because it remains painful, but rather because her interest lies in the present moment and in the inherent potential of each new day.
Mirtala says that she discovered her talent for sculpture quite by accident while pursuing studies in art. She graduated from the Boston Museum School and Tufts University and received a traveling scholarship for post-graduate work in Paris with Zadkine at La Grande Chaumiere and with Couturier at the Ecole Nationale des, Arts Decoratifs. During this phase of training, she came to specialize in what is called the lost wax method. "Before I start working on a piece, it is usually fully formed in my mind's eye. To retain it, I make a small drawing sketch, just to remember the basic idea. That idea is then given form in wax, using fingers, knives, and hot tools. I make no preliminary models. Sometimes the finished piece is very close to the original vision. Sometimes more changes take place in the process of creating it, but the basic idea, the 'message, ' remains intact." A ceramic mold is then encased around the form, allowing the wax to burn out during firing so the bronze can be cast.
Mirtala met her late husband, Itzhak Bentov, in a sculpture class she was teaching. An inventor, biomedical engineer, and cosmologist, he later authored Stalking the Wild Pendulum: On the Mechanics of Consciousness, which became a human potential best-seller. While be investigated the effects of altered slates on human physiology and developed a holographic model of the universe and of the nature of the "Self," Mirtala refined the medium of cast bronze to produce a series of unique sculptural "thoughtforms" illustrating the heights and depths of the human soul. During the years they shared, one would stimulate and motivate the other, and "sparks would fly" as they both sought for the spiritual reality behind manifestation.
After her husband's untimely death in 1979, MirtaIa completed his unfinished manuscript, A Cosmic Book: On the Mechanics of Creation. Today, she travels to give a slide-lecture, From Atom to Cosmos, about Ben's holographic model of the universe and consciousness. A videotape of this slide-lecture is now available for the general public.
Combining her poetry with photographs of the sculpture, MirtaIa has written two books of her own, Thought-Forms and Mandalas. These books serve as the basis for two audio-visual slide shows set to music entitled The Human Journey and Mandalas, which are now also available to the public in video form. "Light and Shadow" is the first experiment in adapting her work for the stage, combining her poetry and sculpture with original music and dance. Dance groups have expressed interest in developing more of her theme1 for the stage, thus opening up broader possibilities of expression. Since her wad has been so successful in helping dying patients find solace, Mirtala is also intent on making adaptations for hospice and counseling environments.
As if all this activity were not enough, Mirtala continues her interest in the creative process itself. A Boston University student who was writing a thesis on creativity invited her to participate in an experiment: Various professionals were asked to reconstruct in their memory that moment of creative discovery when something they actually went on to create first sprang into their awareness.
"The first part of the experiment," Mirtala recalls, "consisted of a discussion, designed to lead the mind through the conscious stages of the process, including the technical aspects. The second part was a meditative approach, with eyes closed, in which through a series of questions and guided visualizations the mind was brought back into the deepest recesses, where the mystery of creative insight occurs as a result of the interaction between conscious and unconscious aspects of the psyche."
While describing details of the experiment, she added, "l could remember that initial stage of a vague stirring, wanting to express 'something.' Then it gradually became crystallized into a definite thought, separation or individualization of an element out of an undifferentiated mass. When the thought became clear and strong, it gathered momentum and, suddenly, a form appeared in my mind's eye to support or to reflect that idea----a spherical shape, like an orange, which could be separated into individualized sections. This was exactly how the sculpture 'Individuation' originally came into being."
Mirtala says that when a "valid" form emerges and joins an idea, the feeling of great joy and the thrill of discovery come as a reward for all the efforts before and after. Much patience, persistence, and skill are required after the exhilarating discovery, involving sifting, sorting out, removing, adding, and perfecting-not to mention the physical execution in solid matter.
"I see the process of making sculpture, and also of writing poetry, as the process of precipitating thought into matter, and this is why the title of my poetry-sculpture book is Thought Forms. "
Mirtala actively promotes the spiritual approach to beauty and aesthetics. Although involved in numerous projects, she preserves a steady sense of practicality and a confidence in the creative purity that is possible through meditative silence, She herself is truly the best example of the very paradox she seeks to portray in her work.
by P. M. H. Atwater
 Updated March 18, 2008 |
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