Come out to see Carribean Folk Art, The True Myth, a new display in the Square Halo Art Gallery throughout the months of September and October.

The Cuna Indians live on the San Blas Archipelago off the Caribbean coast of Panama. They are politically autonomous and much of their traditional culture is intact. Scholars of the Cana culture indicate that the mola (a colorful fabric blouse with hand stitched appliqued panels are worn as the fronts and back of dresses by Cuna women) grew out of body painting, a tradition intended to ward off evil spirits.

The mola panel as it is known today consists of several layers of different colored cloth, usually red, orange and black, which are stitched together and on which designs are created by cutting out portions of the top layers to expose the colors of the lower layers. In addition, the mola artists usually treat the top layer with direct applique, often in several layers and in a variety of stitches to create an even richer surface.

The designs of these molas tell the story of the True Myth: how God made the world, how the world was broken, how  God came and became human, and then how God is making the world new.

The molas in this exhibition are from the collection of Donna and Mark Moran and Sandra and Bob Bowden.

“Now the story of Christ is simply a true myth: a myth working on us the same way as the others, but with this tremendous difference that it really happened . . .” —C.S. Lewis