In my early April post ("Remembering and Proclaiming Joy"), I spoke of the "Crossing Over" series in my artwork. As I explained, the image of boats carrying people (or more accurately, some kind of beings) who are in transition, crossing from one place to another, has been with me for quite a while. It seems to be both a literal place in time and space, and a metaphor. I've previously posted images of some of the boats that have come into being (see May and April 2020).
Today I really started thinking about "crossing over" more generally and realized this is the very phrase used to talk about what happens when someone dies--to move from the density of the body into the spirit world. Crossing Over was the name of medium John Edwards' TV show, where he provided audience members a chance to connect with their dead loved ones (episodes of that show are still streaming). That concept of crossing over is definitely about making it to a more multidimensional space. There are many mythic references to this idea too, some of which include boats, like the Greek crossing to the land of the dead (Hades) over the River Styx. There is in our American immigrant mythos (and my own family history) the image of crossing the ocean to a land of opportunity --a long, difficult journey with only a promise at the other end (alas, so different from crossing in a slave ship, another part of the American psyche--the shadow side of the same image; being taken to something dark and being deprived of possibility). There are also images of "boat people"--the Hmong people trying to flee across the Mekong River, the Cubans trying to get to Florida, or so many instances of refugees squeezing together, fleeing from one site of oppression or another, risking the journey to find somewhere better. Somewhere in my mind, too, is the image of the courageous people of the Pacific crossing vast spaces in long canoes, migrating to the Hawaiian islands (or, in the story of Lemuria, migrating from a much earlier manifestation of those islands to other parts of the world). The boats I have been making are generally long and thin, and must be most closely alluding to those paddling journeys.
I looked up "crossing over" this morning and was surprised and deeply moved by the fact that the first definition refers to a fundamental biological process: the swapping of genetic material when chromosome segments are exchanged or recombined at fertilization. The mother's and father's genes mix or exchange, leading to an individual offspring that carries traits of both, but in a unique combination. That's one of the ways a species not only carries on, but becomes stronger.
I'm writing on the cusp of the summer solstice, which this year coincides with what is being called the "eclipse season" when many powerful energies are pouring into the planet. This is a loud percussive force in this time of the energetic shift. So much is swirling around us: the covid virus, the racial protests and upswelling of saying "NO MORE" or "NOW" on so many levels. I see the signs of shifting everywhere, so yes, we are definitely in the passage, on the way, on the journey, moving across some large stretch of something. As I wrote before, we are in the collapse stage, when the caterpillar has to essentially melt and re-emerge in its new form. I think my boats must be symbolic lifeboats--something to help us steer through the vastness of the unknown waters. May our new recombinations come to fruition SOON and produce something so much stronger and better and harmonious!
I always like to include visuals with my posts, so I'm adding a few more images of boat pieces (remember to scroll down and look for the earlier ones).
Today I really started thinking about "crossing over" more generally and realized this is the very phrase used to talk about what happens when someone dies--to move from the density of the body into the spirit world. Crossing Over was the name of medium John Edwards' TV show, where he provided audience members a chance to connect with their dead loved ones (episodes of that show are still streaming). That concept of crossing over is definitely about making it to a more multidimensional space. There are many mythic references to this idea too, some of which include boats, like the Greek crossing to the land of the dead (Hades) over the River Styx. There is in our American immigrant mythos (and my own family history) the image of crossing the ocean to a land of opportunity --a long, difficult journey with only a promise at the other end (alas, so different from crossing in a slave ship, another part of the American psyche--the shadow side of the same image; being taken to something dark and being deprived of possibility). There are also images of "boat people"--the Hmong people trying to flee across the Mekong River, the Cubans trying to get to Florida, or so many instances of refugees squeezing together, fleeing from one site of oppression or another, risking the journey to find somewhere better. Somewhere in my mind, too, is the image of the courageous people of the Pacific crossing vast spaces in long canoes, migrating to the Hawaiian islands (or, in the story of Lemuria, migrating from a much earlier manifestation of those islands to other parts of the world). The boats I have been making are generally long and thin, and must be most closely alluding to those paddling journeys.
I looked up "crossing over" this morning and was surprised and deeply moved by the fact that the first definition refers to a fundamental biological process: the swapping of genetic material when chromosome segments are exchanged or recombined at fertilization. The mother's and father's genes mix or exchange, leading to an individual offspring that carries traits of both, but in a unique combination. That's one of the ways a species not only carries on, but becomes stronger.
I'm writing on the cusp of the summer solstice, which this year coincides with what is being called the "eclipse season" when many powerful energies are pouring into the planet. This is a loud percussive force in this time of the energetic shift. So much is swirling around us: the covid virus, the racial protests and upswelling of saying "NO MORE" or "NOW" on so many levels. I see the signs of shifting everywhere, so yes, we are definitely in the passage, on the way, on the journey, moving across some large stretch of something. As I wrote before, we are in the collapse stage, when the caterpillar has to essentially melt and re-emerge in its new form. I think my boats must be symbolic lifeboats--something to help us steer through the vastness of the unknown waters. May our new recombinations come to fruition SOON and produce something so much stronger and better and harmonious!
I always like to include visuals with my posts, so I'm adding a few more images of boat pieces (remember to scroll down and look for the earlier ones).
I'm also led to gift you with a group of different images today. I've been putting together three chapbook size collections of my poetry. Every poem is accompanied by an image--not an illustration of the content, per se, but something that seems to capture the energy or spirit of the poem. I'm previewing a few of these here. Each of these images started with a photo I have taken, which I altered to bring in what I think of as additional light. I hope you enjoy them--maybe, like me, you will get lost in their color, mood and texture.
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