Alise: "When I was painting them, I thought - the meaning need to be strong, manly and some way with mysticism. So.. I painted 'Lāčplēs', after the name of a hero who appears in epic poems. He was called 'the bear slayer'. Once, when he was young, he fought with an angry bear. He won the fight and took the bears' ears where all the power was. With this power he fight for the free Latvia".
(for more about this story: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C4%81%C4%8Dpl%C4%93sis and
'Lačplēs' is like calling him. Alise painted also on the letters some symbols of latvian mythology:
Jumis – (from root jum- roof-) was a god of sky and fertility. He is associated with "double-plants", such as two crop stalks or trees which have grown together and share a trunk or stem. During harvesting, some stalks of the crops are bent to the ground and secured in that location with stones. During his holiday, Miķeļi, a ritual called the "Catching of Jumis" is performed, it involves a procession that carries some grains (symbol of "captured" Jumis) home, thereby ensuring the following year's harvest will be at least as successful. He is depicted as a short man with clothes that resemble ears of wheat, hops and barley.
Laima – (laim- (luck-)) was a goddess in both Latvian and Lithuanian mythology. She is the personification of fate and of luck, both good and bad. She was associated with childbirth, marriage, death, proliferation, and domesticity. She was also the patron of pregnant women. Some sources proclaim three Laima's, which means that either this goddess had three aspects or this could have been general name for three deities. Alternative names include Laime, Laimė (Lithuanian), Laimas māte, Laimes māte ("Mother of Luck").
Māra – (Mary) is the highest-ranking goddess, a feminine Dievs. She may be thought as alternate side of Dievs (like in Yin Yang). Other Latvian goddesses, sometimes all of them, are considered her alternate aspects.
Saule – (the sun) was the goddess of the sun and fertility, patron goddess of the unlucky, including orphans. She was the mother of Saules meitas and lived on top of a mountain and flew across the sky on her chariot. At night, she sailed across the sea. She is a beloved Baltic Sun Goddess sometimes recognised as a red apple, setting in the west. Saule is reborn as her daughter, the morning star at the Winter Solstice. Saulė is also a Lithuanian goddess.
(from wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latvian_mythology and other sources)
Photography: Gonnie Meijer
Location: HuismethetHandje, Maastricht, the Netherlands
Link to Alise Tilakas webshop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/Aguce