Grace Upon Grace

Features

It is written that all things are connected by a golden thread, all part of a Master tapestry. That which isn’t easily visible plays as large a part as the rest, perhaps more easily. The network of thread-like mycelium under our feet sends and receives messages, nutrients and medicines including information between species without which we could not exist. And all is mysteriously woven together purposely in a way that serves the best interest. One of my all-time favorite books written by Andrea Wulf is The Invention of Nature. It’s about an intrepid explorer, a visionary German naturalist whose ideas changed the way we see the natural world and thus created environmentalism, meet Alexander Humboldt born in 1769.

I read, then listened on Audible to this book while I painted this, my largest piece. I started feeling like the steward of an artwork that guided me with images and ideas that stretched my imagination and skills.

Many images in this painting are derived from Humboldt’s greatest fan, Ernst Haeckel. Both world travelers and born before planes, trains and automobiles, spent months on wooden boats traversing continents. Additionally, the plants and animals in this 4’ X 8’ piece tell the story of this connectedness and a highlight for me was a tribute to the pineal gland. It’s a powerful yet tiny pinecone shaped and grain of rice sized bit of tissue between the back of the skull and the back of the throat and is also called the God gland, third eye, or heavenly eye. Dr. Joe Dispenza speaks of it and describes it as the door to the mystical. The pinecone symbolizes eternal life, purification, and can also be pictured as a third eye. This was included in my piece as a tribute to a dear friend who overcame a serious situation with her pineal gland.