Animals: Myths and Ghosts
Mixed Mythology
Mixed Mythology is a curation of animal myths in both paint and clay, from a variety of cultures, symbolically expressing stories of creation and unnatural phenomena.
Surreal, singular moments of animal myth occupy large paintings, inviting us to “witness”the impossibilities of story.
Layered multiple narratives play out in circular motifs on wide earthen ware bowls, illustrated with carved sgraffito drawings. (All bowls: 13x13x4.5 in.)
Ghost Birds
Ghost Birds are created from wheel thrown, closed form and raku fired vessel. Unglazed porcelain sculptures memorializing dead birds are affixed on top, titled for location found.
The Last White Cow in Wales
Acrylic on Canvas, 48 x 60 in.
At one point, it seems, there was need for an explanation of the lack of white cows in Wales. The story goes that a farmer was gifted a beautiful white cow by the Lady of the Lake and this cow produced many calves. The farmer decides, after many years, to slaughter this mother cow, and gathers the townspeople to watch. As he lowers the axe to her skull, it will not go through, and as ear piercing screams from the Lady of the Lake resound, this cow, and all of her children, lift off the land and disappear into the ether.
Death of the Flower Woman
Acrylic on canvas, 30 x 40 in.
In Celtic folklore, there are various tellings (and spellings!) of the story of Blodeuedd/Blodewedd . In most, she is as much a villain as a victim and this is a cautionary tale of an unfaithful murderer getting her just dues. My take is more sympathetic. She did not ask to be conjured up out of wildflowers for use as a wife, or to be ignored by an indifferent husband. She had few options available when she found true love with another. She was not killed but instead cursed to be an owl forever.
The Raven and the Whale
Acrylic on Canvas, 30 x 40 in.
There are several Inuit stories of Big Raven, (at once a deity, a human and a bird). In the most well known tale, he goes into the belly of a whale, and discovers the suffering and the soul of all things. This painting is of a lesser known Big Raven tale as he tries to alleviate the plight of a beached whale, which he cannot possibly carry. He asks for help from Great Spirit, and after eating some mushrooms by moonlight in the forest as directed, garners the strength to carry the whale back to the ocean.
The Vegetable Lambs of Tartary, #1
Acrylic on Canvas, 24 x 30
The Vegetable Lamb of Tartary is a very very old myth. The name Tartary refers to what we now know to be a huge area from Afghanistan to Kazakhstan, Mongolia, China and the Russian “far east”.
The Vegetable Lamb, with its wooly white pods growing from stems, was an apparent misunderstanding of the cotton plant, not then known to northern or western Europe. This myth went through many cultural iterations beginning in the 11th century. A hotly debated topic, many explorers and naturalists came up with “facts” about this animal-plant, although every author’s sightings and stories were slightly different.
An early story of the Vegetable Lamb is one where the sheep grow up out of the ground, as in this painting, attached to the plant from an umbilicus-stem. The animals eat the leaves around them for sustenance and then die.
The Vegetable Lambs of Tartary #2
Acrylic on Canvas, 24 x 30
This painting is a companion piece to Vegetable Lambs of Tartary no. 1. (above)
This second painting takes on the 17th century discovery of this mysterious creature, as truly just a fern rhizome, with leaves cut off and turned upside down that somewhat resembles a “lamb”. This was put under glass and touted as the mystery solved… and yet, the legend persisted, as those who saw this specimen still believed it to be an animal-plant..
The Seven Lambs of Tartary Speak for a Day
“The Seven Lambs of Tartary Speak for a Day” is truly “Mixed Mythology”, where stories regarding sheep equally share the circular format of the bowl. The title alludes to those tales, mixed here as one event. In the British Isles, there is a folk tale that at midnight on Christmas Eve, all sheep who face east and bow three times will be gifted with human speech until sunrise. The Irish goddess, Brigid, owned Cirb, the king of all sheep, including the seven magical sheep belonging to the sea god, Manannan. These seven sheep show up here as the “vegetable lambs of Tartary”, a cross cultural myth with many contradictory stories, including the shape of a fern rhizome and a misunderstanding about cotton plants. (See my painting: Vegetable Lambs of Tartary #1 ).
The Year in Cows
The black cow depicts a creation myth from Norse mythology. The cow, Auohumla (Audumla in German lore), is creating the first man by licking him out of the ice. Clearly she is winter. A milking cow, standing in farmland represents spring. She has the traditional bell and flowers of the Swiss Alpabzug festival (which actually happens at the end of summer) but a flower crown feels like spring to me. The white summer cow, seen lifting off the surface, is one of the white cows in Wales that lifted off the land and disappeared when a farmer attempted to slaughter their mother. (See my painting “The Last White Cow in Wales”.) The last, autumn cow is sitting amongst the clouds, imagined as Kamadhenu, the Hindu Brahman cow deity. He is situated between the cow images of man’s interference with nature and nature’s creation of man. This is a combination of Hathor and Mehet-Weret, the Egyptian goddess and celestial cow, but who holds the earth, not the sun, between its horns.
Foxes Mate for Life
There are many myths about foxes in various cultures, most of them portraying the fox as cunning and secretive, ready to lead humans astray. There are fewer myths that describe foxes in a positive light, but I like those better.
The imagery on this bowl is fairly straightforward. These fox mates are fashioning a necklace made of foxglove flowers, as, according to Norse legend, the bell shaped flowers were said to “ring” a spell of protection against hunters. The pair is in the center of the forest, where they are said to provide spiritual and physical guidance for travelers.
The Innocent Become Doves
The title of this piece refers to Polish folklore: women who die when married turn into owls, and unmarried women turn to doves. Owls are considered to have too much yang energy in Chinese tradition and are associated with thunder and lightning. The central owl in this piece regards the Welsh myth of Blodeuedd, the woman made of flowers who was cursed to become an owl. (See my painting, “Death of the Flower Woman”.)
The olive branches surrounding the bowl are a nod to the biblical story of the dove who brought an olive branch back to Noah on the ark, and to Athena, the Greek goddess who created Athens by striking the ground, thus sprouting the first olive tree and whose sacred animal was the owl.
The Three Hares
A design with three hares is one of the oldest artistic symbols in the world, ranging from early Buddhist cave temples in China to the British Isles and many times associated with the Christian trinity. In a multitude of cultures and stories, hares and rabbits are associated with the full moon, shown here at the center of the bowl, as well as with with fertility and femininity. Folklore with the rabbit or hare as a trickster abound world wide, and here, a thread of thorny briar roses surrounds the bowl in homage to the western tale, originally from African tradition , of the Br’er or Briar Rabbit.
The Raven Saved the Whale for the Osprey to Love
This bowl combines a few stories. One is the Inuit myth of Big Raven, who, after eating a forest mushroom in the moonlight (shown in a small aside), garners the strength to bring a beached whale back to sea. (See my painting, “The Raven and the Whale”.)
The other is a Native American creation story as to how killer whales got their white markings. The story tells us that killer whales were originally all black, but one fell in love with an osprey. The whale would jump as far as it could out of the water to be closer to the bird and the osprey would fly as low as possible to meet it. Eventually, they created a child together: a killer whale with osprey markings.
The Stabbed and the Drowned
This piece combines mythology from four different cultures. From Arab culture, the white horse is the foal that was born in battle. To save himself and the mother horse he was riding, the soldier stabbed the foal, leaving it for dead. The next day, the foal showed up, very much alive, but with a red stain on its shoulder. In French culture, “Bayard” was a magical bay horse who understood human speech and could grow larger or smaller depending upon the number of riders. Charlemagne, the king, was unhappy with Bayard’s powers, so he tied a large stone around the horse’s neck and pushed him into a river. Bayard smashed the stone with his hooves and escaped to haunt the woods, where no one could capture him again.
The environment of each horse mixes Norse and Greek mythology. Hrimfaxi pulled a chariot of light from east to west, bringing in the day, and Skinfaxi ran west to east, with a bridle dipped in morning dew, leaving the dew on the earth overnight. The Greek mares of Laomedon could run over water and standing heads of grain. Abaster, one of four black steeds made of night could run at the speed of stars.
Ghost Birds
Unglazed porcelain sculptures memorializing dead birds are affixed to raku fired, closed form, wheel thrown vessels.
