In this image the feminine has tears of compassion for the world in turmoil, and the suffering of all living things. However, her tears also become the waters that cleanse the world, the life giving flow of wetness that brings new life and growth to the land. The face of Gaia, the Shekina, the Kwan Yin, she is the one who loves all of her children and forgives all their mistakes. Acrylic on watercolor paper, 30”X42”

2005, Watercolor

The masculine and feminine dance together in this painting, but there is a wind that threatens to blow them away. It feels like sound and music, but the figures hold onto the vertical line as if they are caught by a tremendous wind. Is it a hurricane like Katrina? In this dance of the opposites, there is the violence of enormous change and the hope of a peaceful time after. Passion and surrender to the unknown outcome. The spiral appears as a harbinger of change, while the wind blows across like lines of music. The two figures may be floating away with the sound of the wind’s music or with the force of uncontrollable passion. The lines in this painting indicate a loose gesture over which the colors and metaphoric associations occur later. You may see differently than did the artist, and that is as it should be. Acrylic, 30”X42”

Painting is a way for me to meditate on the archetypes that emerge from the spilling of paint and the designs that converge into recognizable forms. In the Greenman and the Goddess series painting opens a door to the celebration of ‘green’ ideas that give life to all our endeavors that include a love of nature, a responsible ecology, and a concern for the quality of all human life. I believe that visual metaphors of animals and plants and symbols such as the spiral and circle form the very basis of our imagining human (right) brains. Without the depth and variety of this natural kingdom, our life on earth is harsh and barren. This image of Gaia came after a long period of feeling bereft of my connection to the core of planetary life. I was feeling great sadness and despair following the start of the war in Iraq. I ‘felt’ the long road ahead filled with hundreds of thousands of unnecessary deaths, of soldiers and noncombatants. I felt the death of an ancient culture and a malignancy in our own. I wanted desperately to find a way back to my own center, and to the center of the soul that joins all humans together in love and kindness. What emerged was the central image of Gaia. This painting shows the red ‘fire’ of the feminine (Gaia) birthing new life with the Greenman archetype and infant moving out of a central spiral. The green areas below the spiraling figure of Gaia are filled with abstractions of plant forms and human figures dancing. Acrylic, 48”X48”

The emergent energy of the Greenman in human consciousness signals a hopeful element in the survival of the human race. The Greenman, as represented in this painting, springs up with the delight and playful energy of young dog, horse, and/or bull. It moves with liquid energy and with intention. A shield/masculine circle/sperm/seedpod pours forth new life. The image of the green animal spirit grew out of joyous dance. This image conveys the feeling of the masculine youthful spirit necessary for humanity to make successful environmental and cultural changes. This is the natural life force at its springtime, budding out after the darkness of winter. It is the part of all of us that can imagine a better future and that has the willingness and stamina to create out of our love of life, instead of our fear. Acrylic, 48”X48”

My desire is to offer up a prayer that together we can build a world community that celebrates the divine, the life force, in all things. The Goddess and the Greenman are archetypes of an emergent energy that can heal the wounds of warring opposites, while engendering new life through the ongoing spiral of evolving human consciousness. The Greenman is an archetype found in ancient cultures of the British isles, the Mediterranean, and he also appears in the Americas as Kokopeli and other Kachinas of the Southwest. This is the earthy, clythonic masculine that is the spirit of creativity, regeneration, and fertile growth. It represents for me the masculine that is not driven by logic and a need for control, but rather by a celebration of life. The series of paintings, called “The Goddess and the Greenman,” play with the images that occur spontaneously and thereby have a life of their own. Earth, often called Gaia, appears as a golden woman in her meeting with the Greenman archetype of Celtic lore. This painting grew out of the spirals of water and fire meeting and blending into a place where a large, almost invisible hand of the creative life force touches the face of the Greenman, joining him with Gaia. Animal forms emerge from the whirling energy. Acrylic, 48”X48”

The Phoenix is a mythological bird that tells the story of death by fire, and out of its dissolution there is rebirth. This painting shows the winged creature transformed and held in the arms of the goddess. Its tail tells us that fire is the element that brings forth new life. After the dross has been burned away, from the ashes arises the brilliant bird that once again takes flight. Both fire and water play a part in the transformation of the landscape and the human consciousness. Acrylic, 24”X36”

Acrylic, 36 ”X48”

Watercolor, 24”X36 ”

Acrylic, 48”X60”