Janice Hathaway
The Creative Mask
2026
The Creative Mask embodies eternal life through responsive action while remaining true to one’s core intention. The many armed figure skillfully juggles many iterations of the Earth within an urban universe symbolizing skillful action and protection. Twisting and transforming reality, the floral Möbius strip mask celebrates beauty and desire as it continuously enfolds, evoking the unending cycle of life and the eternal state of becoming convulsive.
‘The Creative Mask’ was a response to the La Sirena game ‘The Shadow-Self: Under this Mask Another Mask…’ Doug Campbell wrote about ‘The Creative Mask’ in his response the game query and I translated his concept into my own.
Six photographs were digitally cut, blended, warped, and painted including a multi-armed figure is a tantric or esoteric form of Guanyin, a Möbius strip filled with a peony flower photographed in The Netherlands, a metal lock from the Victoria and Albert Museum, a background of the nightlights of New York City taken at the World Trade Center in 2023, a metallic globe from the National Medal of Honor Heritage Center in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and a NASA view of earth.