Winter Wren, one of the spirit bird guides (detail), a painting from The Cat and the Coracle book
size: 12 x 12 inches
medium: dyed silk encaustic painting
Gratefully, I live on a relatively small island in the Salish Sea of the Pacific Northwest, which helps with its rather small population, though even now it is increasing as people flock to leave the cities and urban jungles.
At the outset of the virus, we did miss for three months our two grandchildren who would come every other weekend for an overnight stay and enjoy the resources of our creative studios. We are grateful that we can once again be together with them.
My life is to work each day as an artist, painting, sculpting, and writing. THAT is the WORK!
My belief is that, “Beauty Shall Redeem The World”, and that is what I wish to create, beauty. I have not done any environmentally profound art around this pandemic. I have however, called it personally, The CORVID Virus as it reminds me of the Alfred Hitchcock movie THE BIRDS and the black imagery of night, fallen across the plains of human life, blackbirds flocking to eat the carnage.
My one painting, during this pandemic was inspired by the statement of the President of Iceland. If we cannot hug each other, then for sure, hug a tree. Keep ourself rooted to Mother Earth and its glorious beauty and wonder. The trees are in touch with and in communication with the mycelium network running throughout the earth’s sediment. As stated, I wish to speak of beauty and not of the demonic TRUTH of where we are right now in this dangerous situation that we have created upon our earthly mother.
If I Can’t Hug You…
Acrylic on gold leaf
12″x 9″
I have also just released my first book on Amazon, THE CAT & THE CORACLE. It tells the tale of a feline who goes on a spiritual quest within a coracle and leaves his home town, the polluted Land of Sparcgod by himself in his round, red coracle. His journey in the see-saw-sea is testy. Through fateful moments in the sea of his mind and with the help of spirit guides this cat meets The Divine Goddess and finds the enlightenment of his future.
Flynn the Cat knows there is a wide world beyond his dreaded Land of Sparcgod, his dark and familiar home. He wants to know himself better and learn of things he has never seen or imagined, and so he sets out alone on a quest. With his magical coracle, he launches into unknown waters for an adventure that will change his life. Fiddler, the Wise Old Owl, narrates this exquisite fable, swooping in with riddles and mysteries for Flynn to discover and solve. As Flynn travels through times past and present, he is guided by mystical birds and animals that lead him deeper into the truth. He comes face to face with the inspiring character Ziam, but can he be taken all the way to the realm of the Goddess? Join Flynn and his helpers on an enchanting, enlightening, and exciting journey of discovery.
I hope you will order one! It is entertaining and mindful!
Fiddler, The Wise Old Owl-narrator
size: 12 x 12 inches
medium: dyed silk encaustic painting
If I Can’t Hug You…
I LOVE hugging
It centers us
It connects our energies
Harmony and unity
With four arms
Entwining two souls
Now I am instructed
To not hug anyone
We could be contagious
But a tree,
With it I feel
Rooted to the Earth
At least,
If I can’t hug you…
I can hug a tree
Born in 1947 in Marshfield, MA, art school in Boston and now a Master Signature Artist of the Society of Animal Artists, a Fellow of the National Sculpture Society, garnered with many wonderful awards and honors in art, along with numerous public and museum acquisitions.
This article is part of the MAHB Arts Community‘s “Covid19 Diaries Series”. If you are an artist interested in sharing your thoughts and artwork, as it relates to the disrupted but defining period of time we live in, please contact Michele Guieu, Eco-Artist, MAHB Member, and MAHB Arts Community coordinator: micheleguieu@gmail.com. Thank you. ~