Protect and Create Flanking Sight

"Protect and Create Flanking Sight"

acrylic on birch panel

10 x 10 inches, framed

2011

For Modern Eden's "Woodlands" show

Modern Eden Gallery

403 Francisco St

San Francisco, CA 

Show opens Saturday, December 10th 7pm-10pm

Runs through January 15th, 2012

SOLD

Here's the progress shots again:

This piece deals in a small part with my own teenage experiences with the Ouija and Tarot cards; Saturn's seal of protection that the kestrel on the left is holding was something we used to protect ourselves from bad spirits when we used the board.

  

The kestrel on the left (Protect) deals with protection; besides the protective seal, the flowers in it's claws all represent protection in Victorian flower language or floriography (heather, Queen Anne's Lace, juniper), and the bird on the right (Create) represents creativity/artistic expression; the tarot (the five of wands) it holds symbolizes creativity and will, as does the bunch of oregano in it's claws.

So, overall the piece symbolizes how using the oracle signifying Sight (Ouija planchette with the all-seeing eye) to communicate with spirits can lead to artistic inspiration, but you have to protect yourself against evil.  I think that could be an even larger metaphor in itself...

Maybe it's 

"that which inspires can also be dangerous, so you should be on guard".