Process Painting: Ancestral Messengers, part 3

Well the 2015 High Road Art Tour has come and gone, and a very exciting and well attended tour it was. This painting has been finished since the beginning of October, but in prepping for the Creation/Migration "Under a Common Sky" exhibit I forgot to finish this process description for you. As co-curator of the exhibit, with Creation/Migration artist Betsie Miller-Kusz, there has been much to do to get ready. Please find out about that upcoming exhibit on our blogspot: creationmigrationstories.blogspot.com.

But back to the Ancestral Messengers. In my last post I promised input about the Spirit of Raven. The white Raven, which actually does exist in the Northwest, particularly in British Columbia, and a few other spots in the world, is utilized here in opposition to the black Raven. I have long used dark against light in my work as one of the tools of creating visual and metaphoric balance.

This painting, however, captured my waking and sleeping consciousness so strongly when I was working on it that I am really not willing to say much more about it. The way the spirit of Raven is represented in this painting will be up to you to determine. The symbols are so strong, and so consumed my thoughts, that they seemed to intensify as I finished the work. It is a  piece I am very happy with, and it has a very strong presence that is, in part, of it's own making; meaning, it helped me paint it the way it wanted to be. And it held me so strongly in a way that left me with a spiritual essence, but not with descriptive words.

It was featured last Saturday night, with nine other works of art, in the Preview Poetry Event for the "Under a Common Sky" show which opens this Friday. The poetry was wonderful, the event was well attended and everyone was pleased with the quality of the poems and the artwork, and with how well the poets captured the essences of the artworks. The words of Max Early, the poet who responded to this painting, demonstrated that he understood the spirit of the work, and also related it to a story in his life that perfectly matched the intent.

This painting and two others of mine will be in the upcoming exhibit, "Under a Common Sky". The opening will be at Taos Town Hall, Friday the 13th from 5-7PM. Please come if you can.