Crane Journeys

Cranes in the Valley of Fire; oil and pencil on linen / 8×24/ 2017

The paper crane has become a personal symbol or icon of freedom, expansion, and my quest for meaning and peace. In my latest work, I have them flying through various landscapes.  These landscapes act as refer to a personal -inner space and they are mostly desert because that is what I love and where I feel the most content and alive. Here are a few samples of work and a couple of studies.

Here we come; gouache on chipboard / 2017

 

Study; gouache on toned paper / 2016

 

“And she proceeded on…”; drawing study for a linocut print.

 

This little 4×6 piece is a study to find out how gouache handles on absorbent ground. I liked the results. My brush marks have a more staccato feel due to what little moisture the gouache had being absorbed more quickly by the ground.

Cranes over Staten Island; mixed media / 12×12 / 2013

 

She Let Go

She let go. Without a thought or a word, she let go.

She let go of the fear.

She let go of the judgments.

She let go of the confluence of opinions swarming around her head.

She let go of the committee of indecision within her.

She let go of all the ‘right’ reasons.

Wholly and completely, without hesitation or worry, she just let go.

She didn’t ask anyone for advice.

She didn’t read a book on how to let go.

She didn’t search the scriptures.

She just let go.

She let go of all of the memories that held her back.

She let go of all of the anxiety that kept her from moving forward.

She let go of the planning and all of the calculations about how to do it just right.

She didn’t promise to let go.

She didn’t journal about it.

She didn’t write the projected date in her Day-Timer.

She made no public announcement and put no ad in the paper.

She didn’t check the weather report or read her daily horoscope.

She just let go.

She didn’t analyze whether she should let go.

She didn’t call her friends to discuss the matter.

She didn’t do a five-step Spiritual Mind Treatment.

She didn’t call the prayer line.

She didn’t utter one word.

She just let go.

No one was around when it happened.

There was no applause or congratulations.

No one thanked her or praised her.

No one noticed a thing.

Like a leaf falling from a tree, she just let go.

There was no effort.

There was no struggle.

It wasn’t good and it wasn’t bad.

It was what it was, and it is just that.

In the space of letting go, she let it all be.

A small smile came over her face.

A light breeze blew through her. And the sun and the moon shone forevermore…

-Rev. Safire Rose

Source: Elephant Journal

 

 

Joshua Tree – a helpful companion to freedom

Apollo – My Dad: oil on canvas / 36x 48 / Montana Black

I have been drawn more and more powerfully to using the Joshua Tree in my work during the last year or so. In an effort to understand why, I decided to lookup the spiritual healing properties of these wonderful plants. What I found was quite interesting and remarkably relevant to the path I have been on recently.
In a nutshell; the essence of these plants helps to release past karma and dysfunctional conditioning from ones ancestors and family of origin.

 To quote from www.flowersociety.org
“Dr. Pedro Sastriques has used Joshua Tree flower essence for many patients at his clinic at the Psychiatric Hospital of Havana, Cuba. His words give an excellent summary of the essential qualities of this flower essence:

‘The hidden contact with the psychic world of our Generational Tree is not perceived, even though it is present in each moment. Joshua Tree allows us to find it. This essence will clean family patterns that are sclerotic and obsolete, that darken the soul, forcing us to drag a negative karma originating from our ancestors. Joshua Tree will help us be reborn with a higher level of consciousness and a joyful hope for a new beginning.'”

I have been struggling with releasing old programming in an effort to work toward freedom from self defeating patterns that were given to me from my family of origin. Much of the imagery that comes to me for my work has something to do with the current state or path I am on. It’s like my unconscious brings forth those things that I need to place my attention on in order to help facilitate a resolution or solution to whatever problem I am working on. I have come realize that some of my work is record of these transmissions.

The above painting is about my father. It took a while for me to “decided” to place the Joshua Tree so large and prominent – and then to paint it in the black and white tones in order to suggest the tree is a memory or echo. Reading the above healing properties of these amazing plants, it makes total sense to me now why they have been coming to me so strongly.

Click on the above link to the Flower Society website for more information on healing with plants and how flower essences work.

Monkey Year

Monkey Year: gouache on cradle board / Montana Black

My Year of the Monkey piece for a group show with the City of Las Vegas.  In researching this I discovered that monkeys like to eat peaches, and are often depicted with a peach in one paw.
“The peach has two symbolic meanings in Chinese culture: one is longevity, and the other is exorcising evil spirits.”
“The Monkey plays an important role in the daily lives of the Chinese people; its statue can still be seen on the kangs (a heatable brick bed in North China), ports, ferry crossings, troughs, and even temples.
The Monkey has many symbolic meanings in traditional Chinese culture which are highlighted by riches, honor, luck, and Almighty God. ”
Source: http://www.chinahighlights.com/

 Prints available here.

This Year Is Yours by Alfred Lord Tennyson

God built and launched this year for you;
Upon the bridge you stand;
It’s your ship, aye, your own ship,…
And you are in command.

Just what the twelve months’ trip will do
Rests wholly, solely, friend, with you.

Your logbook kept from day to day
My friend, what will it show?
Have you on your appointed way
Made progress, yes or no?

The log will tell, like guiding star,
The sort of captain that you are.

For weal or woe this year is yours;
Your ship is on life’s sea
Your acts, as captain, must decide
Whichever it shall be;

So now in starting on your trip,
Ask God to help you sail your ship.

Art: Vincent van Gogh

“Once you stop putting energy into pretending you will live forever, you can actually live fully now. The alternative, the delusion of permanence is exhausting and painful. Every change becomes a new disappointment. The sooner we face the truth of change, the sooner we can stop pretending and actually live while we are alive.”

– Ian Lawton

Holiday Wish…

Happy Holidays! Love, Joy, and Peace to you and yours now

and always! Namaste!

 

Ghost Child

Ghost Child; oil on canvas/ 36 x 48 / Montana Black

Quietly turning the back door key
Stepping outside she is free…

This is a portrait of my mother after her passing. She was abused and neglected as a child., and this is my attempt to envision her finally breaking free from the hurt and deep emotional pain she always carried with her in life. The skyscape postcard on the lower left is there to suggest a way out into the Mojave. To me the desert is a very healing place…especially the Mojave – silent, vast, beautiful. The socks are intended to give the impression of things that concern home, family and childhood. The marbles are also a refer to children. The cardinals are my mother and also a kind of angelic presence watching and guiding souls on their journeys through this plane of existence.  I believe my mother is at peace and is on to new and, I hope, happier adventures.

Partial lyric from “She’s Leaving Home” by John Lennon and Paul McCartney

Dear Blue Angel…

 

Dear Blue Angel; oil on canvas/ 30 x 40 / Montana Black

Blue Angel has been part of the landscape for many people my age who grew up in Las Vegas. This piece is about how she impressed me as child. I can remember when I was a kid riding in the back seat of my parents car and always on the lookout for her when we would get close to the intersection of Charleston and Freemont.

There are a couple of acknowledgements I would like to make. I would like to thank Bryan McCormick– a brilliant photographer for allowing me to reference his beautiful close up of the Blue Angel statue; featured in the Las Vegas Weekly in an article entitled “Bye, Blue Angel: Motel comes down, but the iconic figurehead will remain ” by Kristen Peterson . Also, there is a reference to the Blue Fairy from the 1940 Walt Disney animated film Pinocchio.

Fly toward a secret sky…

Fly; oil on canvas / 24×24 / Montana Black

My intention behind this piece is about rising above the negative and fearful noise of my internal dialog. To fly free into the sun light and sky…to remember to breathe and quite my mind in nature.