Atlas

 Of course, they think I'm a man. After all, it's been such a long time since I've seen anyone.

"But, who, but a man could hold up the weight of the heavens?!"

"What do men know of perseverance?", I counter. "To hold the heavens for all time..."

And to think that I'm made of stone. Rigid and unmoving. Do the scientists not reveal to us that the heavens move?

To think that strength alone bears aloft the heavens. No, it takes more than strength. To sway and bend as the heavens shift in my arms. It takes a dancer's grace. It is a womb that I carry above. Pulsing and throbbing with life. And wombs can only be carried by women. And only love can bear the weight of the world.

Bustling Activity...Yep, It's Spring!

Days filled with activity! Here's two paintings that I did yesterday. I generally do one painting in a day but yesterday I got two done. Here some other things that have occupied me over the last few days...

1. Road trip with friends to a book store in Chattanooga, TN. Books purchased:

Gustave Moreau: Magic and Symbols

Myth A Biography of Belief

3 book Treasury of Kahlil Gibran

Thematic Guide to World Mythology

The Square Halo and Other Mysteries of Western Art

Defining Art Messages from God

Klee

Fireflies by Rabindranath Tagore

Letters of a Young Artist

ATC Workshop

Artists Journals and Sketchbooks

Creative Awakenings

Die Schlumper: Art without Borders

2. Reading about different philosophies---Note "reading" not necessarily practicing...

perennial philosophy

noetics

religious pluralism

continental philosophy

3. Writing nearly every day...not a novel or anything just thoughts concerning philosophy, mythology and creating a life in the field of art

4. PROJECTS! Artwork for an upcoming local theater production, creating work to show/sell in a local salon, commissioned to paint a piece of glass, upcoming bookbinding classes at GSCC, and making some sketches for art pieces.....whew......

Spring with all it's busy-ness and things being born has officially begun!

I'll leave you with some favorite quotes, I've been thinking about lately....what do these say to you....

John Donne "...death is an ascent to a better library..."

"Are you going to go on the creative soul's quest or are you going to pursue the life that only gives you security?" Introduction to Joseph Campbell The Hero's Journey

"When people say they're looking for the meaning of life, what they're really looking for is a deep experience of it." Joseph Campbell

"The fear of hell is hell itself, and the longing for paradise is paradise itself" Kahlil Gibran

"God made truth with many doors to welcome every believer who knocks on them." Kahlil Gibran

"Art is a step in the known toward the unknown." Kahlil Gibran

"Fear of the Devil is one way of doubting God." Kahlil Gibran

?????

What ties you down?

The world needs to rationalize. In order for me to figure you out...tell me what you do. Once I know that I can move on....

Our 'thinking' brain needs to apply a label so that it can move on. The problem---labels inadequately place us in a box where we don't fit. The only label that might be adequate is...human.

We can cause an indefinite amount of problems by trying to label something....

Want an example...it's a big one...

WHAT IS ART?

Break down into genres for further confusion...What is folk art? What is outsider art? Fine art? Illustrative art? Oh, dear heavens...craft?!?

The problem with labels, besides being possibly insulting, is that when we listen to them...they trap us. Limit our possibilities. Why? Because we're human. When your brain hear's a label applied most of the time, we accept it and say, yes, that must be true and we stop. Yes, I'm "X" and not "Y"...This stops us from pushing our boundaries because we've found our label...all should be well with the world. But it isn't.

The ultimate catch?

Guess who applied your labels?

You did.

We label ourselves so that we fit 'in' to whatever 'in' is to us. Because we live in a society which is our larger 'brain' so label ourselves, we compartmentalize into groups.

But as I said earlier, labels stop growth and movement into a move fully realized potential.

Sure, I know we need labels at some point, we live and operate in a world that demands it.

But sometimes we let labels control us and tie us into an Gordian knot. You know how to untie a Gordian knot....you don't...you cut it.

We need to cut our ties to inadequate labels when concerning ourselves, our lives and our passions. We need to move forward into becoming something new. But don't get trapped by new labels, continue cutting, continue moving forward. Life after all IS the journey, the great mystery to be revealed....And don't we all want the fullest life available....let ourselves go...

We deserve the freedom and movement to become who we in our greatest potential are meant to become...

Untied and free....

SPRING!

Spring is almost here! I can feel it! It's not just the gentle slow warming of the days...but I feel it in my spirit....a wakening, a quickening, a rebirth...

My birthday is next month...so many years ago, I was preparing to be born in my mother's womb...maybe this is the source of these feelings...

It's just when the breeze filters in my open windows and takes away with it the winter's chill and old air and I feel like I could fly away with it...dance with the warm current of air into a warm, green place of growing....

Rabbits slowly take over the fields and their statue counterparts take over my porch. My father-in-law who passed away nearly a year ago, we shared close birthdays and these last few years he would always give me a porch rabbit. As we clean out his business I find more rabbit statues and want to bring them into our lives to honor his memory.

Rabbits, of course, represent many things, among them...fertility, new birth, intuition, promise, fulfillment and balance. Rabbits are tied to the moon and their gestational period is between 28-31 days which of course is the length of a month. The month being tied to the phases of the moon. Cool, huh?

And did you know you can see a rabbit in the moon...similar to the man in the moon?

And it's the Year of the Rabbit....

So, I suppose if I feel a little hoppy, springy, and full of life and possibility these days..it's to be understood.

I think we have these mythic symbols and practices in place for a reason...they speak to our most centered humanity and beliefs. They are bits of our soul embodied in tangible things...to be celebrated and honored. They are after all ourselves....

The paintings above are ones that I've done at different times. The first one I did in '08. And the bottom one was completed last week. Rabbits often pop up in my sketch books and it's interesting to note how my style has evolved over the course of time.

Which one do you prefer?

St. Brigid's Day

Today is St. Brigid's Day or Imbolc.

I had bit of a rough day yesterday removing carpet...spring cleaning, of sorts, and today I found out that it's St. Brigid's day...a day of spring returning, cleaning, and generally turning of seasons....so it's a neat coincidence....and I made a St. Brigid's cross and put it in my kitchen...

Learn how here.

Wikipedia says:

"Imbolc is the day the Cailleach — the hag of Gaelic tradition — gathers her firewood for the rest of the winter. Legend has it that if she intends to make the winter last a good while longer, she will make sure the weather on Imbolc is bright and sunny, so she can gather plenty of firewood. Therefore, people are generally relieved if Imbolc is a day of foul weather, as it means the Cailleach is asleep and winter is almost over."

Sounds like Groundhog Day...which is tomorrow...

Today is rainy and cold so I guess the old cailleach is still asleep and spring is nearly here!

Note: I'm not pagan or anything, nor do I necessarily find anything wrong with it either....I just like honoring and learning about different ways...

Myths...

Have I ever mentioned that I think too much?

Today I remembered one of the very first myths that I read...it was Edith Hamilton's version of Pyramus and Thisbe....

In the story two lovers and neighbors cannot be together because of their parents and the only way they can communicate is through a chink in the wall that separates them. They decide to meet beneath a white berried mulberry tree. Thisbe gets there first and spys a lioness fresh from the kill....Thisbe flees but drops her cape behind. The lioness finds the cape and tears it with her mouth as she wipes her face on it. When Pyramus arrives and finds the bloody cape, fears he has sent his love to her death and hastens his own...

Later when Thisbe returns and finds Pyramus dying she in turn stabs herself with his sword and together they perish...

The white mulberries hanging in the tree above them were forever stained dark red with their blood....

Now, I remembered reading this as I was going through paintings, posting pictures and updating shops... Check out prints here

A recurring thing I paint is a tree rooted in a heart....

A part of me wonders if this painting is not in some way...a regurgitation of this myth after being embedded in my brain...

I love myths and mythology, I love the way they shape us and tell us about our selves, our loves and our fears....

Myths can bend, twist, and change their faces and give us universal truths about humans...

I try to explore this with my art....reinventing myth or at least giving certain paintings a old, traveled look to them...which is what I think a myth would look like if it had a face...old, traveled, slightly weary and slightly impish....with a certain twinkle in her eye...

What myths do remember or do you feel have shaped you?

Clytie

According to mythology, Clytie was a water nymph who fell in love with Apollo who was embodied by the sun. She spent hours gazing at the sun and following its course through the sky. Nine days she sat and watched the sun, until eventually she became brown and rooted to the soil, her face transforming into the sunflower which to this day continues to follow the course of the sun. The sunflower remains a symbol of constancy.

Thus, you have my imaging of this event. And who in their day hasn't been dazzled by the sun.....