For My Little One

"For My Little One"

acrylic on birch panel

8 x 10 inches, oval

2012

SOLD

For my August 11th solo show, Talisman at San Francisco's Modern Eden Gallery

Progress shots:

Here's my latest painting, "For My Little One".

It's a piece that I've wanted to make for a while; since a horrific scene that I witnessed from my living room window last year.  It all happened so fast that I didn't even really know what happened at first.  I was sitting at my drawing table and heard a loud sound outside.  I looked out to see a hawk with something in it's claws and a squirrel chasing after him.  

Apparently the hawk had snatched up a baby squirrel from the power line from where the mother squirrel had it with her.  I screamed and pounded on the window at the hawk, hoping he would let it go, but it flew away before I could run outside.  

I could hear the mother squirrel crying from the tree for what seemed like days later.  

I know that this is just one of the many natural occurrences in the brutal reality that is nature, but it was so excruciating to see it happen; especially when I had seen the mom running around with the baby in it's mouth the day before.

So, I had been wanting to make a painting where the squirrel gets revenge on the hawk that took her little one and brings back his skull, and for it also to look like she's keeping a vigil or visiting the baby's grave.  

She's holding forget-me-nots, which obviously mean "Do not forget me!" and remembrance, and the hawk skull is flanked by peach roses, which symbolize immortality.

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".