Last month (May 20, 2011) Lyle  Cashulin came to my studio and interviewed me for an article in the Pt Reyes Light. The article was about my friend Sophia Marzocchi’s upcoming mask performance and my influence on her younger years with mask’s.  Lyle and I talked and he took 13 pages of notes which he edited down to 10 paragraphs.  He did such an excelent job, I am including the text from the article about my work with masks.  If you would like to read the whole article click the link at end of this post.

Lyle wrote: Sanchez, who has spent decades making masks and performing mask dances and rituals of his own creation, is excited for Marzocchi’s Bolinas debut. “I’ve known Sophia since she was a baby. She saw a lot of these mask performances I was involved in,” he said. “You never know who’s going to get the spark; the fire—but Sophia saw the beauty of the masks.”

For Sanchez, making masks is a spiritual process that delves beyond his raw materials of bronze, steel, wood pulp and paint. “The most important thing is to capture the spirit of the mask,” he said. “That’s the true essence of mask making. When you create a mask, the art lies in capturing its character or spirit.”

All of his masks embody a spirit and carry their own mythologies.  “How can I sculpt something if I don’t have a story to lead me through? If I don’t have a story to lead me through it, the mask will get lost in shape and form,” he said, adding that he avoids sketching ideas for masks, preferring to let the mask’s “spirit” materialize itself through his hands. In fact, Sanchez now uses the term “spirit faces” to describe his art.

One of his masks is of a shapeshifter, an androgynous face that seems to transform from human to beast as it is examined in different light. Another is a blue crescent moon with mischievous eyes and a wicked smile. The one Marzocchi will use in Unmasked is a roughly textured face that exudes the very essence of grief and despair.

Sanchez incorporates ritual into his art, and said that the lack of spiritual ceremony in modern society has left a void. “We’ve lost rituals. Like the ceremony for young girls becoming women,” he said. “Now, there’s nothing. They’re just handed a box of tampons. There’s no ceremony to let them know what’s happening, and older women sitting around [helping them through].”

One of his rituals was the Moon Burning Ceremony that he performed with his then-15-year-old daughter, Rosemary. Every full moon, Sanchez and his daughter would carry a beautiful moon mask and burn it on the beach over a small fire. The flames would eventually blacken and engulf the mask’s serene expression, symbolizing the cycle of life and rebirth. “The Moon Burning was a kind of way to create a new mythology; something people have done for thousands of years to evoke the mysteries of life.”

Sanchez said that though the mythologies of the ancient world are probably outmoded in modern society, their elemental wisdom is timeless.
“You’re working with archetypal energies that are thousands of years old,” he said. They’re not locked in time. You tap into these ancient energies, stories, myths like the moon, or fire, and new myths are born.… The old myths are really great, but they’re four, five, six thousand years old. We’re entering a new dynamic. This is what I feel as an artist.”

Sanchez recently celebrated the unveiling of several new pieces of art, including several masks and a large panel depicting a young woman beginning her transformation into a puma. He is also participating in this year’s Point Reyes Open Studios over Memorial Day Weekend, when visitors can see his art and converse with him.

Although Sanchez has branched into other mediums, such as the shapeshifting young woman panel, large sculptures and altars—such as the one that graces downtown Bolinas—masks maintain a central part of his work. “Whatever is going on, I always go back to the masks,” he said. “Masks have an incredible power that is rare, especially in our culture. They’re not really understood…and if anything, they’re pushed to the side.”

To read full article click here.