After I found out about my hive’s disappearance I spent the next morning with a friend searching for it. I just have a feeling it was tossed somewhere. We did not find it, but it was comforting to have the company. I returned home empty-handed but back into the studio I went. Head down and determined to get back to work. Thank God for deadlines and for the comfort I always find in creating.
I have an upcoming show that I need to get work created for. The theme is “Flight”. I had sat down and brainstormed about flight and I have since created a few new works that I am excited about. The above painting was the first one done. The tree image has appeared in my artwork since I was very young. My first linocut print I made in 6th grade art class was of a winter tree to illustrate a very depressing poem I wrote about leaves falling to the ground. ha! But trees are very grounding for me. And often when they have appeared in my work, it’s a sort of self-portrait. Birds in my artwork, especially, crows, usually symbolize dreams/visions and sometimes connections to the spirit world.
When I have done guided visual meditation, I always have had to focus on a tree in my mind’s eye to ground me in the beginning as my thoughts tend to wander. It’s actually a tree that is in my neighbor’s yard. I see it everyday, it is a part of my life. Adding a tree to this painting at that time in the studio was a way to ground me, give me a sense of stability. I think of the feather as guiding me back to what I know, to what is safe….and that has always been in the actual act of creating. When I am making things- the world makes sense, I feel my sense of place in the world.
One of the other artists who also had a piece destroyed and stolen sent me this quote that day and it helped me to get back into the studio to where I can make things right for myself.
“The people who were trying to make this world worse are not taking the day off. Why should I?” -Bob Marley
Bridgette, I am so happy to have found your website and your work. I was reading an old interview on the artist Laly Mille from 2013 and she mentioned you as one of her favorite artists. I googled you and here I am. Your work is so lovely and I am so very, very sorry to hear of the destruction of your piece, Keepers Of Life. As a beekeeper here in Virginia I have a huge love for the honey bee and concern for the treatment of them and of Colony Collapse. Why anyone would want to destroy your beautiful work of art is beyond me. I would much prefer to believe that is was taken by someone who found it so beautiful that they could not stop themselves and took it to their home. As wrong as that is, it would make much more sense than someone purposely destroying it. I have looked through your Flickr account at your other works and they are all so beautifully created and full of life. I work in mixed media and am a far cry from an artist in the formal sense but do consider myself an artist in my own, little mind. I look forward to continuing to follow your work and the next time I get to Baltimore, I will most certainly make a point to come see your pieces. Please don’t lose heart and continue to do the amazing work you do for the reasons you hold close to your heart. Much love to you.
Debbie Hosaflook