Monday Art Salon - May 18, 2015

“Messenger & Muse” - mixed media on canvas, 16” x 20"

There’s a new moon today, combined with the start of a new mercury retrograde.  I should have known, given I’ve been extremely clumsy and my computer, phone and camera are acting a bit bratty.  Little things seem much more challenging than they ought to be, and my energy level is on the sofa with a book.  I should have known…but I didn’t, because I wasn’t listening.

I’m reading a book about listening.  And reading it with a group of women I adore.  Women who keep me accountable and provide wisdom.  Rare intellectuals with an abundance of compassion and introspection.  And the book could not have come at a better time.  Listening to others is something I work at - keeping my mental chatter quiet so I can really hear what others are saying, trying to hear what they’re not saying and waiting to hear if they are asking me for anything in response.  But listening to the quiet things…signs, symptoms, similarities and synchronicity - these can be a challenge for me, especially when life is busy.

Lately I’ve been visited by crows.  One at a time, larger than life, strutting around wherever I am.  Looking in my window when I’m painting.  Waiting in the yard when I come home.  Silent sentinal by the driveway when I leave.  Crows in the art people post on sites I follow.  Crows on the covers of books at the store.  Crows.  It was a bit unnerving after awhile. Because I wasn’t really listening.  So, of course, I had to find out what the crows were trying to tell me, since they seemed pretty insistent.  

Crows are the bringers of messages from the spirit world.  They warn you to let go of old thinking and embrace a new way of seeing yourself and the world.  They are a sign of change; that all you have been working toward is coming together.  Congruence between your actions and your beliefs.

There is a lot of change in my life right now, and a new way of thinking seems like just the right thing to go along with that change.  In making this piece of art, I followed the crow’s advice and went with my urge to try something new.  One of my students recently sent me these beautiful leaf skeletons, which hint at ethereal trees from another time.  They were perfect feathers for the crow, bringing his message from beyond.  Hopefully, the crow now knows I am listening.

This piece is available.  Currently unframed.  Inquiries: imajenation@gmail.com