Above the Abyss
One night in 2006, I put in a long Photoshop session on the image of the eagle, abalone shell & waterfall for the Chicana Dreamer. Next morning, I was on my way to the wood shop, making the winding drive through the beautiful hills between Lagunitas and Petaluma. In less than the blink of an eye, I was up in the clouds & mist riding on the eagle’s back toward the abyss. It was as if my art had come to life, & I was inside it. The eagle looked back over his shoulder, right into my eyes, and said “Don’t be afraid, I will carry you over the abyss.” Just as suddenly, the next moment I was back in my car driving through the green hills. I have used several titles for this image, including “Abiding, Indestructible,” and “Above the Abyss.”
athena stopped by on her way south. We discussed the state of my lungs, which is a huge motivating factor in my decision to move away from these tiny rooms, and my current means of making money. Doing woodwork and remodeling homes is honest work and pays decently, but I have eaten too much of too many kinds of toxic dust in these situations. Lungs were not designed to be a garbage can. We are talking decades of abuse here, including smoking, which I quit 20 years ago. I got a serious bronchitis in Tuscany, and am still recovering 6 weeks later. It is time to go for the dream, and trust that it will somehow pay for itself.
We ate crab and asparagus, drank crysanthemum tea, and she eventually took off on another midnight ride.
Seeing artists like Botticelli and Michelangelo in the original is a pilgrimage which I believe every person who identifies as an Artist should make. The sensation was a visceral tug at my old Figurative Art ambitions. I realized I would need to move into a larger place, and set up the old studio. Sitting in front of a Mac, even a Mac as awesome as my G5 Dual 2.7 with 30″ Apple Cinema Display, just can’t supply that kind of kick. It is time to get physical again!
Having spent my recent years becoming a digital artist, I was inspired to return to my roots in drawing and painting after seeing the marble mountains above Cararra, Botticelli’s Birth of Venus and La Primavera in Florence’s Uffizi, Michelangelo’s Captives and the David, as well as the Sistine Chapel in Rome.
After returning to California from Italy, I decided to create an online journal which would continue my 30 year practice of remembering and recording my dreams, while also serving as a conduit or bridge over which I might pass as I reawaken my relationship with my traditional training. In my attempt to convey the feeling of crossing over a kind of twilight threshold between the worlds, I recalled my earliest studio days, when I made a silk screen print entitled “Dream Departure.” Here is a photo of that print:
Yesterday evening, Anita and I composed the final spread of The Rainbow of Hope. The process felt eerily miraculous. The image had been through several disappointing stages already, but now fell together unerringly, as if by magic. I now accept that divine guidance exists in some form, but don’t pretend to understand it. For me, it is about courage and self-acceptance balanced with a gentle, playful spirit. I tend to externalize it less than Anita, but results were no less profound than if angels had truly been at our side.
This morning, I slept late, resting my back and dreaming. An air of blessing permeates my dwelling. It is somehow visible and tangible. I’ll need to tap into it again today, as I work to bring the other illustrations of the Light section into alignment with last night’s creation.