The Gift of Tears

 

Featured image: Seasons

the gift of tears

       frozen on skin

sadness

NO

powerful

joy

      tears…

      burdens

released

she weeps

The Southwest

 

Featured image: Raven's Spirit

I tell and create stories for all the works I create. They are personal stories about my life. I believe that stories are our wealth. No money, diamonds, gold, silver or what have you, but stories. Our history. The stories we create become our history. I love hearing stories from others about their lives, and the lives of others who are important to them.

Recently I traveled to the southwest, Tubac, Phoenix, Santa Fe, Sedona and Taos. I gallery hopped in all those towns, asking about the stories the artists were telling in their work, both 3 dimensional and 2 dimensional. At first I tried to visually read the artists’ stories but then I found that I really needed to do some research. I started asking questions about the artists’ visual languages. I researched and bought books on the visual symbolism in their works. I am still researching – their pictographs, the symbols they put on their clothing, drums, shields, decorations.

I was especially drawn to their fetishes. The first fetish I saw and bought, just because I liked it – turned out to be a major piece. There were fetishes tied to the back of a mole. And another one was of two ravens tied together with a turquoise piece on their backs, the fetish. The women who sold me the work told me about the differences between ravens and crows, or black birds. Ravens mate for life, crows do not. Ravens travel along or with each other, crows do not travel in clusters, groups. I loved the story. And I loved that the story was being told repeatedly. For me, that is what art is all about – the stories, mine, and the other viewers of a work. Stories, our histories. Just glorious.

Returning home, I am beginning to read all the books I picked up along the way. I am re-immersing myself into their culture. It is hard because I felt differently when I was there. Loving their culture and what they were saying. I know my future work will reflect this trip for a long time – my head is just spinning. The first thing will be sketches of Ravens in different postures. I am lucky to have two ravens visit my feeder almost every day. I am so excited about it.

Two Ravens

 Featured image: Ravens in the Backyard

Imagine sitting near a snow drift that covers over your head.

Blending with pearls falling from the sky.

Two ravens at the end of the path.

Traveling

 

Featured image: Forever

Before I left for our southwest trip I was researching the Celtic art.  Especially their knots.  The symbolism within the Celtic knot is that all things are interconnected, women together.  That means the good as well as the bad are woven into the knot.  I wonder if all things are intertwined. What was the thing that held the knot together?  I came up with the conclusion that it was faith.

Faith according to the online dictionary is:  complete trust or confidence in someone or something. Faith is also according to the online dictionary is a strong belief in God or in the doctrines of a religion, based on spiritual apprehension rather than proof.  Faith isn’t really a visual, that it is just something believed in and this belief allows us to imagine and create work that illustrates it; like the Celtic knot.

Tones and Textures

 

Featured image: Sun, Tree, Water

Landscapes quietly absorb the tones, textures and rhythms of our living.

Glistening

  Featured image: Big Pine and Chickadee

glistening

      droplets….. frozen

      sun……

      pine…..

covered in 

      beauty

Our Space

Featured image: Red Tailed Hawk

My commitment in life is to be constantly creative and to encourage others to live creatively.  Think about it….. If we all live creatively and valued creativity, how different the world would be.  

My commitment to my work is to always challenge myself and be creative. That means I want my work to be filled with the spirit of freedom, the spirit of individual freedom and that the spirit of the collective is freedom. Freedom of spirit and spirit’s vision.

How does an artist create freedom in their work? It depends on how an artist defines freedom. Imagine how freedom would be if we all lived in spaces that are surrounded by our concept of freedom. Our spaces that are created by the creator, ourselves and not another.