10 x 10 inches
I finally finished the second piece of the encaustic mixed media remaking of two gouache paintings I made back in 2019. It seems crazy that 2019 is already seven years ago. I shared Shapeshifter (owl woman) a while ago and while my Flicker piece has been started, I had too many other things I had to attend to before I could get back to it.
If you’ve never seen a Northern Flickr, they are justso beautiful. They are so colorful and have polka dots and stripes and a back bowl looking shape on its chest, a bright red shape on its head, and bright yellow under feathers. And it’s pretty big! I think back when I orginally had painted the flicker in gouach, I had just seen one in my backyard. Anyway, I love them.
According to what I have found, the flicker is symbolic of healing, balance, and individuality. Which is nice and positive as opposed to the other week when I was staying in a cabin in West Virginia and I heard the repeating call of the Whippoorwill while I was trying to go to sleep. So of course, I looked it up and they all said- bad fortune, even death. Great…..But nothing happened, all good. I mean, I was a visitor in its home, what is supposed to do- be quiet so as not freak out humans with their imposed meanings. They are really weird looking. I should paint one.
Back to the Flicker. To me when I see Flickers I am just struck by the stripes and the dots and the bright colors, like it’s just like, ‘yeah I’m mixing patterns, but check out under my wings.’ That’s when the Flicker is truly striking, in my opinion.
When I first created these bird human hybrids, I really enjoyed working in this different way than my usual. I hope to do more now, all these years later. It’s fun to return to an abandoned thread. Or maybe not abandoned, just paused.