The whole 30 (29/30 have been reworked but the rest remain as created)
Part 1: Creator | No.1: new moon
6”x6” acrylic on panel 1.2.19 #30x30x30 #vargallery
a new moon, painted on the first day of a new year, signaling the beginning of a new cycle where everything seems possible but even the light is resting
SOLD to private collector.
Part 1: Creator | No. 2: waters
6”x6” acrylic on panel 1.2.19 #30x30x30 #vargallery
Water is Life.
SOLD to private collector.
Part 1: Creator | No.3: root/bulb/seed
6”x6” acrylic on panel 1.3.19 #30x30x30 #vargallery
Today I am thinking about the bulbs sleeping in their dark beds. We plant them in the fall so they are prepared to bloom the moment their little ‘eggs’ incubate in warm spring dirt. Does it all begin with the seed? Who plants the seed? Am I the seed or am I the root? Is birth the moment of planting, or is it when I shed my little seed-coat and crane my neck toward the sun?
Available.
Part 1: Creator | No.4: earth
6”x6” acrylic on panel 1.4.19 #30x30x30 #vargallery
incubator, womb for all things, but also the place where we plant and where we deposit our dead and where decay becomes fertile and births again- creation is a hard thing to chase with a paintbrush because it resembles the dead the harder you squint at it
Available.
Part 1: Creator | No.5: the heavens
6”x6” acrylic on panel 1.5.19 #30x30x30 #vargallery
For as long as we have seen, have we not gazed up at the sky?
SOLD to private collector.
Part 1: Creator | No.6: evergreen
6”x6” acrylic on panel 1.6.19 #30x30x30 #vargallery
In the first part of this series, I’m thinking about birth narratives and creation and the images we associate with such. There’s the obvious images and stories we tell, of course, but birth and death exist around us and in us every day in ways we often don’t acknowledge. In traditional Chinese medicine, the first phase of the life cycle is ruled by wood- it signifies creation because it is the phase where new life takes form and becomes something else, a metamorphosis of nothing/mystery into something/tangible. Wood emerges from the undivided Whole and gives rise to the seperation of individual forms (Reichstein). Trees also feature in so many of our creation stories, from the Tree of life to the tree of Eden. During Yuletime, we bring evergreen trees and boughs ( descent from a pagan tradition ) into our homes because they invoke the birth of the light and allow us to remember its return during winter. The returning sunlight that grows each day after the winter solstice is the start of a new cycle, the birth of a new year where everything is possible and growth is inevitable.
SOLD to private collector.
Part 1: Creator | No. 7: wildfire
6”x6” acrylic on panel 1.7.19 #30x30x30 #vargallery
We’re taught to fear fire. Especially in the last few years, across the West we have seen the devastation and the tragedy fire can bring. But behind it’s power and mystery and destruction is life-giving properties which deserve an honoring of it’s own. Here in the Midwest, prairie fires play a crucial role in a healthy ecosystem- fire slows the invasion of wind blown seeds and trees and creates boundaries where everyone has the space and light and water to grow. Fire also speeds decomposition, returning nutrients to the soil that encourage speedier germination. I think back to my meditation on the bulb, and everything it needs while sleeping in the earth. Fire is a mother, is a quiet nourisher.
SOLD to private collector.
Part 1: Creator | No. 8 : turtle
6”x6” acrylic on panel 1.8.19
#30x30x30 #vargallery
When we lived in Mexico, my husband and I bought an incredible painting from an artist on the street (whose name completely escapes me right now...). It’s black and white painted and printed images of skeletons and anthropomorphic humanoids leaping and lunging through the air in a spiral dance. It’s one of my favorite pieces because every time I look at it, I notice something new. One thing my husband saw before I did, was that the creatures were spiraling on the back of a giant turtle.
We’ve all heard the folktales about turtles, but there are also many creation stories from across the globe that feature turtles as the carriers of the world. Hindu mythology, Chinese mythology, North American mythology all feature the idea that we are carried by a godlike turtle through the cosmos. In North America, there is a story explaining eclipses from the Iroquois; “There is still talk," (said they) "of a very remarkable darkening of the Sun, which was supposed to have happened because the great turtle which upholds the earth, in changing its position or place, brought its shell before the Sun, and thus deprived the world of sight.” I love the idea of a universal mother turtle, keeping us safe.
SOLD to private collector.
Part 1: Creator | No. 9: chrysalis
6”x6” acrylic on panel 1.9.19
Available.
Part 1: Creator | No. 10: The Sun
6”x6” goldleaf on panel 1.10.19 #30x30x30 #vargallery
“Ô, Sunlight! The most precious gold to be found on earth!” —Roman Payne
Available.
Part 1 (1-10)
Part 2: Living | No. 11: flesh
6”x6” acrylic on panel 1.11.19
Part two explores imagery related to life, living, and nourishment.
Available.
Part 2: Living | No. 12: fruit
6”x6” acrylic on panel 1.2019
For persephone, for the high priestess, for higher self
SOLD to private collector.
Part 2: Living | No. 13: beast
6”x6” acrylic on panel 1.2019
SOLD to private collector.
Part 2: Living | No.14: fruit 2
6”x6” acrylic on panel 1.2019
SOLD to private collector.
Part 2: Living | No.15: egg
6”x6” acrylic on panel 1.2019
SOLD to private collector.
Part 2: Living | No. 16: heal (plant 1)
6”x6” acrylic on panel 1.2019
SOLD to private collector.
Part 2: Living | No. 17: flight
6”x6” acrylic on panel 1.2019
SOLD to private collector.
Part 2: Living | No. 18: plant 2
6”x6” acrylic on panel 1.2019
SOLD to private collector.
Part 2: Living | No. 19: gather (fire 2)
6”x6” acrylic on panel 1.2019
SOLD to private collector.
Part 2: Living | No. 20: water 2
6”x6” acrylic on panel 1.2019
SOLD to private collector.
Part Two (11-20)
January 11-20, 2019
Part 3: Death | No. 21: roach
6”x6” acrylic on panel 1.2019
#30x30x30 #vargallery
Cockroaches are much hated, misunderstood beings because they are creatures of darkness, surviving and thriving in places and scenarios that would kill most others. Cockroaches don’t fear the dark, and they don’t fear the end- In fact, it is thought that cockroaches will still be here long after we are gone. Across cultures and stories, we see the common theme that darkness is the place we meet unknown/mystery. Darkness is the ending of day, it is the beginning of day, it is winter, it is sleep. Renewal. Magic. You could say that cockroaches represent both resilience and renewal. they hold a place in our ecosystem as recyclers. They help break down this organic debris; in the process, they add nutrients to the soil through their waste, and exist as a food source for small animals. There’s a common theme throughout this work as I think about what I am making, the spirals we live with from birth to death. The Ouroboros; I eat you, now you eat me. We cannot exist without one another, even the smallest creature in the dark.
Available.
Part 3: Death | No. 22: fungi
6”x6” acrylic on panel 1.2019
#30x30x30 #vargallery
Mushrooms are the grandmothers and recyclers of our ecosystem, creating new life from decay.
SOLD to private collector.
Part 3: Death | No. 23: funeral flowers
6”x6” acrylic on panel 1.2019
#30x30x30 #vargallery
Flowers are presented at funerals for they represent the soul, temporarily filling the void left by the departed with fragrant, ephemeral beauty.
Available.
Part 3: Death | No. 24: bird (stillness)
6”x6” acrylic on panel 1.2019
SOLD to private collector.
Part 3: Death | No. 25: bone
6”x6” acrylic on panel 1.2019
Available.
Part 3: Death | No.26: winter (water 3)
6”x6” acrylic on panel 1.2019
Available.
Part 3: Death | No.27: omen
6”x6” acrylic on panel 1.2019
SOLD to private collector.
Part 3: Death | No.28
6”x6” acrylic on panel 1.2019
SOLD to private collector.
Part 3: Death | No.29, disastor (reworked/inprogress)
6”x6” acrylic on panel, 2019
Available.
Part 3: Death | No.30, time (reworked)
6”x6”, acrylic on panel, 2019
Available.