If you make art long enough, you find themes. Myth runs through mine – myths from long ago and as new as what I write on the page. I am a firm believer in updating myths to speak to those who are seeking that wisdom now.
Today’s mask has a lineage. And I will share that with you.
Today’s mask:
inspired by this collage: Raven Knows It’s Time to Wake
which borrowed from this sketchbook drawing
whose title was inspired by this poem of mine:
WOMAN SONG
Part I. DREAMING
In the midst of scent
from white magnolias, lying quietly
beneath a galaxy of shooting stars,
I walk between the seconds
sweeping the face
of the boathouse clock.
On the edge of the abyss
between then and now and when
silver mists rise slowly
from the river; and somewhere
far away a loon swims
crying
for its mate.
Drifting in memories, where
broken dreams sleep
curled like hermit crabs
in stolen shells,
I swim into the dark,
push my fingers into mud
velvet as a kitten’s fur, and
pull up pearls. I peel their
layers like rosebud petals to find
the sandgrain cores and lay them
quivering on an alter of red satin
surrounded by indigo voices;
sadness drifts like incense
before that altar where
someone stands in circled
illumination amid purple-
pink anemones.
She is crying but she makes
no sound; her tears become
an ocean on which pain rides,
foam on the crest of waves.
I am under water and I am not
drowning. Through the azure
I see the foam turn into bubbles
that blow upon a bracing breeze
and break like tear drops. I have
no need to catch them; it is time
to let them go.
Dancing with iridescent rain-
bows in an ascending spiral
I break the surface, watch
tears turn into crystal dew, fall
like rain on blades of moonlit
grass, and discover
I am an eagle. In my mouth I
hold a golden fish that
speaks my name. I let
it go and it becomes a yellow
comet with an orange tail
that trails a word I cannot
read. I fly into the sun and
through to find
I am a woman who
has been sleeping
and knows
it’s time
to wake.
which may have inspired this painting, Raven Dreams A World
Ravens belong to the Morrigan, a celtic maiden/mother/crone Trinity. Morgaine is often represented as Morgan la Fey in the King Author myths, and certainly in The Mists of Avalon, in a slightly different light of course. I’ve updated Morgaine here.
Myth is story. Joseph Campbell says that myth is someone else’s religion. I have a great little poster on my office wall that says “Unfold your own myth.” You don’t have to take the story that was handed to you by your parents/siblings/friends/community/church/school/country. You can write your own. Because you ARE the hero of your own story, whether or not you realize you are telling it to yourself and others every single day through words and actions. Pay attention.
Everything is Connected. Anything is Possible.
