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NOTE: If you would like to be notified when new pieces are ready for sale,
please contact me.
Wisdom is not a trait to be possessed;
it is an immram to be undertaken.
Immram: Wisdom is the second piece to respond to my time away in Celtic lands during Beltane. [The first piece is Focus: Wholeness below.] It is filled with the imagery of the legend of Bradan Feasa — the Salmon of Wisdom. The legend weaves around the early life story of the great Irish warrior, Fionn mac Cumhaill. But the image is many-layered. All fish are symbols of female wisdom, power, and fertility. The waxing moon in the upper left is the moon stage of the Crone. The nine hazelnuts represent the nine sacred hazel trees — the tree of wisdom — that surrounded the pool in which Bradan Feasa swam. The labyrinth and flame represent the divine power within.
The piece incorporates antique sari fabric, hand-gilded lace and painted hand-crotcheted lace, vintage glass beads and buttons, wool fiber, polymer clay, cottons and batiks, and silk ribbons. It measures 24″ x 16″. It is intricately beaded and hand-sewn, with beautifully detailed fish scales, flame and hazel trees. The whole is interfaced with artists’ canvas for stability and backed with a gold and white cotton. There is a wooden hanger in a sleeve for mounting. The words above appear on the back.
This piece is available from my Etsy shop.
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These smaller pieces are part of my 21-day Art Journey. Some have been adapted and enhanced; others are just seeking a home. Each is 8″ x 10″, mounted on student artist’s canvas (which has a wooden frame). There is a small hanger on the rear and each has a poem-meditation printed on the back. [Clicking on any photo will open it to its full design.] They are all available through the Etsy shop. In order, they are ‘Woven Together’, ”Soup Line’, ‘Life Lines’, ‘The Texture of Air’, Colorado Time, and ‘Fire’
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Focus: Wholeness emerged from my time away in Celtic lands during the growing season of Beltane. It seeks to reflect the flow between the four elements as they cycle in the great dance of creation. It is an invitation to set our own lives in perspective and to know ourselves part of that healing movement of transformation.
It incorporates antique sari fabric, vintage glass beads, and dyed wool locks. It measures 13″ square. The background is primarily pieced batiks and French silk ribbon. It is intricately beaded and hand-sewn, with beautifully detailed flames, feathers, and rain. The whole is mounted on artists’ canvas with a rich purple batik backing. There is a wooden hanger in a sleeve for mounting. The acclamation of gratitude below appears on the reverse of the piece.
With gratitude,
I enfold myself this day
in the nine blessings of creation:
the tempering of fire,
the life-breath of air,
the softening of water,
the steadiness of earth,
the clarity of light,
the transformation of tempest,
the cleansing of ocean,
the nurture of field and farm,
the unity of all.
May I embody at-one-ment
with the universe
this day and forevermore.
This piece is available from my Etsy shop.
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To emerge
is to leap through clouds,
to stretch every limit,
to dance through
unfamiliar landscapes,
to fall in love with living,
to unfold, to rise on tiptoe, to shine.
It is to awaken to possibility
again and again and again.
This fabric piece is called Focus: Emerge. It measures 9″ x 9″. The background is pieced batik and cotton fabrics. The chambered nautilus is painted and distressed felt. It also includes Gulf Coast coral, a small pewter labyrinth, and two polymer word plaques (“emerge” just visible through the silk fibers and “grow” which swings freely across it when the piece is hung in a wall.) It is mounted on artists’ canvas; the backing is cotton.
There is a wooden hanger in a sleeve for mounting. The poem-acclamation above appears on the reverse of the piece.
This piece was created as we journeyed through late Samhain and toward Imbolc (the spring quarter) when the small shoots of new life begin to emerge from the darkness in which they have been gestating. As the light began to return, I realized that there were aspects of my deeper self that needed to emerge into the light.
This piece is available from my Etsy shop.
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Arise from winter furrows!
Arise through fertile darkness.
Escape seed case
to dance branch and burst bud in restless woods,
unfurling leaf and flower into verdance.
Arise, life-blessing sap –
potent exuberance –
fountaining passion and profligacy
in eternal greening.
–2014
This fabric piece is called Green Man. It measures 15 1/2″ x 15 1/2″. The background is batik printed in an abstract birch pattern. The face and most of the leaves are 100% wool felt, painted, embroidered, and wired. The wired leaves can be molded and flexed. There are also eight hand-dyed silk lace leaves, brass leaves from a vintage necklace, artificial rose hips, and tiny charms and fetishes of woodland creatures (including a wolf, a turtle, a rabbit, a bear, a bee, an owl, a bird and two butterflies). It is mounted on artists’ canvas; the backing is a leaf-printed cotton.
There is a wooden hanger in a sleeve for mounting. The poem-acclamation above appears on the reverse of the piece.
This piece was created as we journeyed through late Lughnasadh into Samhain and toward the winter solstice. As the darkness has deepened, I have been aware of the need to wait attentively and patiently for the return of green life. The Green Man (and less frequently The Green Lady) are metaphors for that eternal renewal, the resurrection of spirit and hope.
This piece is available from my Etsy shop.
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Bearer of Healing,
Birth-giver of Wholeness,
You align us with your sacred energy.
You are balance in the midst of dis-ease,
unraveling the knotted places
to flow freedom into limitation.
You fountain upward from earth depth,
pour downward from heaven height,
spiral breath through inner space,
dance sparkling from every edge.
You are the holiness of each atom,
radiant power seeking purer embodiment,
joy seeking incarnation
within the boundaries of time and space,
hope transforming all alienation
into at-one-ment.
Be so! Oh, be so!
This is Shrine: Hygeiatokos (Bearer of Healing), the third piece I have created on healing. She measures 16″ x 47″. She is based on the traditional icon, Our Lady of the Sign. Again I have worked with the energy of the seven chakras — here clearly visible in the close-up. Each chakra uses a gemstone associated with its energy from amethyst (at the crown) through lapis lazuli, aquamarine, malachite, amber, carnelian, and coral (at the root).
The background is gold silk (reminiscent of gold leaf). Her glory is hand-gilded lace, heavily beaded. Her face and hands, as well as the chakras, are wool felt. The flowers at her feet include vintage buttons, pewter and polymer flowers, silk petals, and hand-dyed silk lace leaves. Her dress and veil are also silk — painted and beaded.
The piece is mounted on canvas and backed with fire-toned batik. There is a wooden hanger in a sleeve for mounting. The poem-acclamation above appears on the reverse of the piece.
I have been startled at the compelling call to work with healing images steadily over this past year, but terminal and chronic disease seems rampant in both my personal circles and in the world with the Ebola crisis in the headlines daily.
Hygeiatokos is not yet available for sale. She will be on loan to various healers and to those who need her for their own healing. [Please contact me if you would like to borrow her.]
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On the reverse of the long backing (which is pieced cottons) is this reflection:
Energy rises
from roots deep in molten power;
cooling and distilling,
giving birth
to joy and sorrow,
courage, fear, hope.
Refracting through love,
proclaiming truth,
clarifying, focusing,
until —
releasing into return —
it scatters as crystal glory,
dazzling darkness.
The Chakra Icon Panel is the second piece in the healing series and consists of meditation squares for each of the seven chakras. Each square can be hung individually on its own wooden hanger (included) or the seven can be hung together on a single backing (as shown here).
Each chakra square reflects the color and focus of that energy node, from the root (red) through the belly (orange), solar plexus (yellow), heart (green), throat (pale blue), third eye (indigo), to the crown (purple). Each square also includes gem stones or minerals associated with the chakra, a symbol reflecting its theme, and the sanskrit word for the tone chanted when focusing on that energy. The backgrounds are sewn batiks and cottons mounted on canvas. They are each backed with cotton in a complementary color. Each square measures approximately 8″ wide by 7 1/2″ tall. The entire piece measures 11″ wide by 55″ long.
Close-up photos of individual chakras can be requested.
I have been working with images of healing and healing energy recently. These healing pieces include Focus: Healing (which sold on Etsy in September, but can be seen in Archives) and Shrine: Hygeiatokos (above). These pieces are a tangible form of prayer for friends, family members, acquaintances, and the earth.
This piece is available from my Etsy shop.
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Hearing the call of Life’s yearning,
we journey to our growing edge,
and change.
Then — if we dare —
we entrust ourselves to
what we cannot see
and dance over the edge into transformation.
This piece is called Transformation and it has emerged as a companion to Rebirth (below). Both are responses to a time of fundamental shift in my inner perspective.
Feathers and nests have been a fascination since I was a child, but recently (during weeks of looking for guidance) I began to find feathers everywhere…and, surprising for this late in the year, pieces of birds’ eggs pushed out of the nest.
Transformation measures 9″ x 14″. It is created from batik and pieced cottons, hand-dyed and -spun wool, Czech and Japanese glass beads, and polymer clay eggs. The nest is three-dimensional, woven from wire and silk fibers. It is mounted on artist’s canvas and backed with batik. There is a removable wooden hanger in a fabric sleeve on the back.
This piece is available from my Etsy shop.
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Focus: Rebirth
This piece is inspired by my own spiritual journey, and by the challenge of entering a new decade of life. It has been my privilege to have mentors who truly saw each dawn as the chance to celebrate life anew. My reading in biology reminds me that our cells turn over completely every seven years. The images include the pomegranate which has always been associated with renewed and reborn life, and an embroidered interpretation of the birth canal carvings found in the megolithic tumulus at Gavrinis, France.
It is called Rebirth. It measures 7 1/2″ x 9″ and is created from pieced fabrics (batiks, gilded, and black on black), wool felt, and glass and jet beads mounted on artist’s canvas and backed with gilded cotton. There is a removable wooden hanger in a fabric sleeve on the back. The piece can also be mounted in a shadow box.
Faith and science proclaim the same truth. Science calls it cell regeneration; faith tells us we are born again (and again and again). Today is a whole new life. Celebrate it!
This piece is available from my Etsy shop.
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Focus: Love
I made this icon in honor of the many friends and family members who are grieving the loss of spouses or partners, children, siblings, parents, friends. Sometimes it is a sudden loss in an accident; sometimes it is a long, slow loss to Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s or MS. The central image is a photo I took in the Burren on the west coast of Ireland; at my feet the rock formed a deep heart shape filled with mosses, grasses, and one small pink flower. It has become a metaphor for me of love enduring and blossoming in the midst of the hardest circumstances.
The piece is called Love and it measures 7″ x 9″. It is created from pieced batiks, the photo printed on fabric, silk ribbon, and glass beads. The photo is over-embroidered by hand in cotton with beading. It is mounted on artist’s canvas and backed with batik.
This piece is available from my Etsy shop.
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This piece is called Mater Mundi (Mother of the World). It is 8″ x 9 1/2″, created from pieced batiks, painted and hand-dyed fabrics, glass beads, Swarovski crystal, a turquoise bear fetish bead, a pewter fruit tree, and gulf coast coral mounted on artist’s canvas and backed with batik.
The large image is an interpretation of the Venus of Willendorf with a hand-painted canvas earth, representing our deep connection to the environment.
This piece is available from my Etsy shop.
NOTE: If you would like to be notified when new pieces are ready for sale, please contact me.