Despair and Hope

Hope and Despair make up the whole. I have been feeling despair over the dire predictions  for the survival of us humans and  the failure of our leaders to make the changes that need to be made. I have been reading a lot about what is wrong,  the hopeless state of politics and the condition of our shared earth and all its beauty. what came to mind was some color copy prints that I made in the middle 90s of the earth burning.   At that time I was disturbed by these images but didn't quite know their meaning. I could see both the destruction and the hope but was uncertain to their overarching meaning. Were these images prophesies of the future? or were they inward images of my own psyche?  Below are 4 images that I picked from the series of about 20 images.   The sequence is one of destruction to hope.

Isis, earth and sky , light of hope from the cave
color copy print 11"X 17"


All of these prints are cropped from their original format of 11"X17" in order to fit on my scanner.




As I thought about what I had been reading and looking at these prints I wondered why I was painting 

birds.  Birds in flight, transforming, Birds symbolizing the soul.












Theses are images that I am working on now.  They are filled with life and  the soul transforming. Transforming into what??   From my shamanic training  I see that the birds are at the gateway , we as a specious are at an important gateway.  we can call this gateway the sun, the black hole, the void or God.  But one has to have courage to pass through, some of the birds , souls. have already passed through and been transformed others are about to enter or are leaving.  I wonder which one is me? and I am asking the viewer which one are they? 

Travel to Sacred Sites

Sacred sites  have been my passion for as long as I can remember.  Borobudur is the latest one that I have visited.  To be there in person is such a different experience; the climate, the scale, and the texture of the stone carvings all add up to seeing and feeling with a deeper sense of what was the original intent of the builders.  This was for me a modern day pilgrimage as was each of my other trips to ancient sacred sights in the past.  What do I learn from each of these visits? How is my art influenced by these visits? These are questions I ask myself. I realised that for me, these visits to sacred sites open a window into the past as well as into the present and future.  It is 'the eternal return' which is held in material form in these ancient sites  which in turn holds all time past present and future.  How does this interact or influence my art work?   By putting me in a state of being so that I can hold that sense of the eternal or I can at least touch it long enough to point me the right direction to begin my art work