THE SEA SHORE OF ETERNITY

If it's not to strange to say so, I would love to lick the inside of your mind!

 Sara Shaman on Facebook (commenting on the painting: My Hut on the Bottom of the Sea)

 International Teacher, Author, Painter and Forest Witch in Europe and Globally

 

 BEAR ME  (Not For Sale)

Many people asked to buy this painting - but I could not part with it. We are all sojourners. We are vessels traveling on the Waters of Life. We like to think that we are in control. We resort to clever constructs and develop many defense mechanisms because we need to feel in control.

Both bears and also beluga whales have appeared in many other paintings. In the Bone Mother Series a beluga whale is the White Mother who births me back into the world of everyday reality or Earth Life.

UNDER WATER VIOLINIST

Sonia Slany, a very gifted musician, whom I held very dear, and who made wonderful contributions to sacred art retreats I facilitated, died in 2021 (of breast cancer). This brought my first experience of attending an on-line funeral during Lockdown. 

I recently had a powerful dream where she was playing her violin under water and many aquatic animals were attending the concert. It was a beautiful and uplifting dream.... a reassuring dream. It was such a privilege to hear her play again...

 

 

 SELKIE SOUL  (60 x 42 cm)  £295

While working on this painting it became a focal point for reflections on my Selkie Self: who she is, how she expresses herself through me, how she relates to other "hybrids" I identify with, such as mermaids.

I spent much of Summer 2021 exploring the concept of Hybrids and dedicated an entire newsletter to them. I made myself masks and costumes and danced in the Forest at midnight. In the mythological sense, Hybrids are creatures that combine the features and body parts of several species.  Hybrids are master shapeshifters.

Hybrids flag up questions around belonging: am I an Insider or Outsider? They represent belonging to two worlds or not quite belonging in either world. Brene Brown reminds us that the opposite of belonging is fitting in. In my dreams I hide a sealskin or fishtail under my skirt!

 MY HUT ON THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA  (60 x 42 cm)  £355

A few years ago I made an art video titled My Inuit Ancestors (A Reflection on Spiritual Heritage). Let me say upfront that I have no (known) Inuit heritage in this lifetime. However, my best dreams and paintings always take me to The Far North, into Inuit myths, traditions and sky lore. At times we need to dream in black and white to see more clearly (or to see in the Dark). In one such dream I lived in a hut, made from the ribs of a Blue Whale and I was married to a Seal.

The Arctic is a place where Time freezes along with the Ocean. When the Great Darkness comes, many magical events unfold. The boundary between dreams and reality dissolves.

WATCH MY INUIT ANCESTORS

 

 

 THE HOUSE OF THE ANCESTRAL SKULLS   (60 x 42 cm)  £325

Our ancestors lived through pandemics, wars, crop failures and poor (or non-existent) medical care. They are an immense source of support right now - if only we open the door (between the worlds) a crack! When did you last connect with your ancestors? When did you last honor them, mention them by name, tell them the family news?

This painting was inspired by tribal or indigenous peoples who have special buildings where they keep the skulls (and or bones) of their ancestors.

 GOING WITH THE FLOE   (SOLD)

This painting is the companion of the one on the left: Elders are closer to our children. They often see the magic in things. They have the time to stop and smell a flower, or discuss the shape of a cloud. They have lived long enough to know that history repeats itself (unless we learn) and that political correctness is a predatorial animal, frequently changing its spots but never its coat.

Furious grandma's and grandpa's, fierce compassionate Elders, see the larger picture!

 

 APPRENTICED TO EQALUSSUAQ (THE GREENLAND SHARK)

  (60 x 42 cm)   £265

I learned a lot from swimming with Eqalussuaq. 

Greenland sharks are among the largest sharks in the world, comparable in size to great whites. The meat of a Greenland shark is poisonous. Greenland shark meat can cause symptoms in humans similar to severe inebriation, and the neurotoxins in their flesh can even be incapacitating to sled dogs. 

Greenland sharks do not attack humans, they are VERY non-confrontationalThey dive to extreme depths, going as deep as 2,200 meters (7,218 feet)...They are never in a hurry and will eat anything. 

The colder the water, the happier the Greenland shark is! Longevity: they can live for 400 years or more....

This gives you an idea of the qualities I am now developing within myself!

LEARNING THE SONG OF AN ENDANGERED SPECIES   

(Apprenticed to a Basking Shark) (60 x 42 cm) £275

One key concept for the year 2021 has been apprenticing myself to an animal species, as a painter. Leaving the anthropocentric mindset where human needs and desire automatically take priority over the rights and "dreaming of animals". Sacred Art Activism!

The Basking Shark (Cetorhinus maximus) is the second-largest living shark. Adults typically reach 7.9 m (26 ft) in length. Satellite tracking shows that they overwinter in both continental shelf waters and deeper waters They are large and look frightening but are not aggressive and don't ever harm human beings.

The species has been exploited commercially as a source of food, shark fin and shark liver oil. As a result some populations have disappeared and others have become endangered. My personal learning is that the Web of Life loses a song, language or frequency, as well as a species, when animals become extinct. Many languages teeter on the verge of extinction as well.

 International Teacher, Author, Painter and Forest Witch in Europe and Globally

 

 DREAMING WITH WHALES   (60 x 42 cm)   £245

 BUILDING COMMUNITY - OTTER DREAMING  (60 x 42 cm)   £295

 

 

 OTTER MANDALA FOR OUR GLOBAL VILLAGE  (60 x 42 cm)  £295

 OTTERING :  A VERB!   (60 x 42 cm)   £245

 

 

 WHITE MOTHER OF SPIRIT CHILDREN   (60 x 42 cm)  £275

  WHERE REINDEER GOES TO GIVE BIRTH   (60 x 42 cm)   £255

 

 International Teacher, Author, Painter and Forest Witch in Europe and Globally

 SELKIE PARENTING DREAM (60 x 42 cm)   £275

This painting was inspired by a recent dream where my husband and I were both seals.

We had a selkie baby daughter we needed to school in the ways of straddling two worlds (human and seal, land and sea).

Some people believe in a parallel universe and claim that our dreams are snap shots of what is unfolding in those 'other worlds'.

I enjoyed this dream and I hope that the baby selkie grows up and that the story continues in a magical land, only a minute distance away on the Space-Time-Continuum.


 GOING OUR OWN WAY  (60 x 42 cm)  £195

This painting was inspired by mind-boggling aerial photographs that show gigantic whales swimming underneath unsuspecting surfers, swimmers or small pleasure boats.

I have seen whales in the wild. I have been on a fishing boat (off the coast of Greenland) where one whale made a sport out of diving back and forth under our vessel. To be in the presence of these mysterious behemoths is literally awe-inspiring. And it is not without risk!

This painting is not to scale. In reality a blue whale is much bigger than these kayakers. The concept I am trying to portray is reaching a turning point (in any relationship) of knowing where our ways part - and moving forward with grace and mutual respect.