The Pink Tree

No message here.  Just an experiment with the pastels and the glaze. 

The other pictures in this series have been too dark to frame and the brush strokes from the glaze too obvious.  I didn't burnish this picture before I glazed and the results are better.  It means I can't get that smudgy effect but the colours are much brighter. 

December has become a bit of a lonely month for me, but I'm feeling stronger this year.  After having spent so many years in the Yukon I know the psychological/spiritual boost of the winter solstice as the sun begins its slow return.

Looking forward to it.

Leaving Her Bones

Thousands and thousands of years ago my grandmothers left Africa and

slowly migrated to the European continent.


They dropped their body bones along the way

but not their DNA.



Like a ribbon that neither fades nor breaks

it connects me to them.




***

The Journey

The Journey, oil pastel on ink, glazed.  20" x 14"

The second Grandmother tree. 

This one includes one of the grandfathers - represented by the deer but mostly it is about the journeyand the daughters, (my grandmothers) born along the way. 

Writing the Grandmother Prayer

Since I had my maternal DNA tested I have been almost

haunted by my grandmothers who came out of Africa and

slowly over thousands of years migrated to northern Finland

and then on to Scotland.

 

It feels as if they are as happy to have been discovered as I am

to have discovered them.

 

 And so I've been thinking about a prayer to honour them.

I like the idea that they are in front of me not in the past

- so that's where I started. 

 
But I knew I needed more.

 

Then when Magaly, http://pagan-culture.blogspot.ca/ , saw my

picture, "The Grandmothers", she left a message on face book that

more or less completed the mantra.


Thanks, Magaly!

 

The Meditation

Grandmothers, I can face the unknown because you 

light the way.

May your torches burn bright.

May your love give me strength.

***


P.S.  I apologize for not being more present in the blogosphere.  I have some other projects on the go & the visual arts muse is here so I'm usually at my drawing board when I have spare time.