Ceramic dishes

These little dishes are by my daughter Kaitlin’s hand. I so win having her pottery in my home and I enjoy ‘using’ her art. She has young children so any time for her art is a constant search. Never the less she is quite prolific. I so understand the life because I was always scraping together time for my art when my kids were little. It is a must do though because it saves you from ‘mommy head’……….that’s when the brain atrophies and mom is swallowed whole by her beautiful progeny. After art we emerge a kinder, wiser and more patient parent.

Landscape ?

My seven year old granddaughter Tessa created this collage. Her daddy had it upside down much to her horrification. Pretty exciting no matter upside down or not for a wee girl. She is quite the artist. Tessa carries a paper pad and pencil with her and draws everything that she sees. It is nice to see that she has given herself the pleasure of creating art.

keeper of the secrets

watercolor 4/2017

 

‘Raven’s lesson is to walk without fear even if the way is not clear…trust your intuition to guide you.’

 

As it is with all original people history is recorded through verbal stories. I love the tales from Native American culture because they add to the spirit and mystery of the animals that I paint. I often get lost often reading the myths and that’s how I found this one.

“At one time the whole world was dark. Inky, pitchy, all-consuming dark, blacker than a thousand stormy winter midnights, blacker than anything anywhere has been since.”

“The reason for all this blackness had to do with the old man in the house by the river, who had a box, which contained a box, which contained a box, which contained an infinite number of boxes, each nestled in a box slightly larger than itself until finally there was a box so small all it could contain was all the light in the universe.”

In the story, the old man hides the light because he’s afraid to see whether or not his daughter is ugly. In a ploy to steal the light, Raven shrinks himself to become a hemlock needle in a basket of drinking water so that the daughter swallows him. Soon Raven is reborn from her as a raven/human child. The old man accepts him as a grandson, and soon Raven begins begging that he open the boxes, one after another, each time pleading and crying until the old man yields.

When the old man finally opens the box containing the light, Raven grabs it and flies out of the house—causing light to spread throughout the world and revealing that the old man’s daughter is as beautiful as the fronds of a hemlock tree.

As Raven flies away, Eagle sees him and tries to steal the light, causing Raven to drop some of it, which becomes the Moon and the stars.

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