RavenCircle Creations
Art for openning doorways of perception
Space and Place Artist's Book
My wife and I moved to beautiful Pleasant Valley, in the middle of northern Colorado. When we finally settled, it became apparent that all our visions about a place to be were coming into sharp focus. We began to build a base, and from this a book is developing. The book is slowly evoloving and will be 8.5x11 when complete. Each watercolor image is available in print form for purchase at $50.00 each. Each page is dedicated to a major part of our vision of space and place. Though the title may change, the ideas are all there. This is a work in progress. As new pages are developed, more images will be posted here.
Mountains are a signifinant part of the energy and love we have for the world in which we live. They are mystical beings. This first page is from spirit and the essential root of the rest of the book. When we were looking for a place to be, I kept seeing that it would be between the mountains and a vast open area. The foothills of the Rockies are just such a place. This is also a favorite color scheme using prussian blues mixed with cobalt and indigo to create this cool yet vibrant feeling of water coming down from the mountains. The map is an abstraction with a goal of enticing pure meditation and knowing.
Along side each page of images, there will be a page whose focus is words. This poem came and is called Spirit Path. The poem is read along the lines which the triangles create. At the same time each triangle is a gem of an idea. Thus one can read the poem in many directions and gain more and more each time it is read.
We love the ravens. In our new place, the ravens help us stay connected to the southwest and to the northwest, east and all directions. At the same time they are creators of the new. They are electric birds of awareness. I also rediscovered Paynes Grey, a color which hints at my past. The cool grey to black which it creates refelcts back the colors of the sun and is a constant love of mine.
We feel very strongly that to care for the earth is to care for ourselves. In this work, three bears, the child, the parent and the spirit (in the tree) all look into the center which is earth hovering in space. Around her are the colors of the medicine wheel related to the creators of our native elder's tradition. Trees are a significant part of our homeland. We have lived in desert and rain forest, east and west... so to come to the center we sought the trees. Our land will be nutured with a forest of life and living with standing people from willow to fruit trees around the sacred lodges we hold.
My other half made sure we chose a place to be where sunshine is in abudance. The sun feeds her and I in a way we never thought it would, being survivors of the desert and the forest.... We rediscovered our love of watching the wandering sun through the seasons. The sun shines bright in the middle of the winter here and as well in the other seasons. Our house points to the east where we can see the change in time across the seasons as the sun changes its time to rise in the morning. We are blessed to have nesting golden eagles, osprey, bald eagles and a host of other birds. The eagle here flies high into the knowledge of the sun. The sun is seen in the phases of its change through the year. And the characters are about the flames of warmth which bathe the gardens.
This summer it was amazing to watch and witness the amount of storms which pass over our valley. As they did, we watched and listened to numerous rolling thunder displays of sight and sound. As we did, we prayed in our lodges, got caught in the storms, especially hail, and watched as we were passed over by potential funel clouds. In the midst of many of the storms are dramatic holes of blue. The eagles would fly through these patches. Also the storms would clear and the stars would come out. At the side to the east and through the summer was Saturn, to the center, Polaris, and Venus made her western appearence in this year. All of this included winds and wonder. We were thankful for the constantly changing weather.
Life is a constant changing and wandering road. In this page is the red road of life. As we walk it, we are born again and again - the circle in the center left is birth from the mother's womb. We circle out, learning the directions, yellow, red, black and whte. We mature and set our own gifts and patterns into the world and finally begin our journey back inward towars the spirit with a guide helping us (the bear) to return to spirit.
Driving to work each day, I must go over this hill which opens out on the other side to the plains. Often early in the morning before the sun rises, there is a splash of color from the end of pre-dawn that has taken my breath away. Just such a morning is honored in this piece. The sun was illuminating the clouds from below and the sky was awash with the colors of the rainbow. The trees, barren now from oncoming winter months, were spiking into this color. The land was dark and cold and the deer were on either side of the road as I drove. Here the deer is the gardian of these between places. Helping me to map the way through, the deer reminded me to be gentle with ourselves. When I turned the corner and headed south the west was blazing with the snow capped mountains and the front range in beautiful prussian blues. Again every day is magic in our area.