Of Air and Earth
In which Sarah shares Transformation Symbols, Comforts a Reptile, and Queries Readers for a Painting Title.
Do you journal or write newsletters? I’m so in awe of the people that produce regular newsletters filled with so much clarity and insight (and Substack Notes! I still haven’t figure those out 😫.) I follow and admire you, but I’m still in the “I don’t want to say anything dopey” phase of my Substack journey.
Yes, I have paintings I’m working on but often I haven’t clarified in words what the paintings are about, yet. Also, I like to be somewhat timely and relevant. Hopefully this newsletter will find you well and also qualify as relevant.
I am currently working on a large wall-hanging painting of a condor. I call these “gonfalons” (i.e: a banner or pennant, especially one with streamers, hung from a crossbar) because the word “banner” (i.e:: a long strip of cloth bearing a slogan or design, hung in a public place or carried in a demonstration or procession, or, a flag on a pole used as the standard of a monarch, army, or knight) doesn’t fit.
My current gonfalon is inspired by condors. These birds struggle at the brink of existence and have almost ceased to be but for the efforts of a very few people who have worked hard to restore their numbers. For me, condors are a symbol of recovery against daunting odds.
Condors and Vultures are members of the Family Cathartidae, from the Greek, ‘kathartes,’ meaning a cleanser or purifier. Their function in the food chain is to cleanse the Earth of dead things, which is a great metaphor. Condors carry away the deceased, expired, and no more, making way for new things to come.
This is a work in progress, and isn’t even titled yet
👉 but I’m willing to hear suggestions!
If you would like to see me working on it, come by my studio at 50 West Main St, Ventura CA, Feb 15 (this coming Saturday) 5pm-7pm, where you will also get to meet many other artists during this first ever open studio tour at our new complex, part of Vita Art Center. Also, Main Street Ventura is a fun place to spend some time, so make a day of it!
Snakes are another symbol of rebirth and regeneration. As this is the Year of the Snake, I thought I’d share some snake art and a snake story. Once upon a time in a land far away… well, about 10 years ago on my street…
I used to be known locally as the neighbor who “was into” local wildlife. I’d get called when animal stuff happened. So, when one of my neighbors got into a jam with a snake in her garden, she called me. The snake was a 3’ long gopher snake, and had gotten itself very tangled in a fence of bird netting.
After sorting out where the snake ended and the netting began, we got a manicure scissors and gently started snipping. Sadly, the snake had writhed and struggled quite a bit giving itself a deep cut along one side. But little by little, the netting was removed and the snake was freed…
…but not out of the woods. It had also swallowed a lot of the netting, and I didn’t know how to handle that. While I was holding the animal with one hand, and gently snipping the plastic threads with the other, it coiled itself tightly around my arm and would not unwind.
At that time, we had a pet snake and thus had a relationship with a local pet shop that provided snake supplies. I drove my arm-wrapper to the pet store (the snake never loosened its grip) where I asked the owner if he could please help. Very gently, he extracted the bulk of the netting from its throat, a ball of material about the size of a mandarin orange!
But we couldn’t do much about the cut. I suggested keeping the snake in a box and putting salve on the wound, but he said trying to keep the snake for any length of time would stress it more than help it so, still coiled around my arm, I drove the snake back home. Once there I placed my arm on the ground near a hole under our backyard hot tub, nowhere near any more bird netting. The snake uncoiled and quickly disappeared into the hole, a safe and warm place where it could hopefully heal and recover.
Some people are deathly afraid of snakes, it’s part of our primal human circuitry. But I am very fond of them. Their appearance is almost mechanical in the interlocking of their scales, but at the same time organic, fluid, colorful and poetic.
Our snake Skippy was an orange corn snake, and we think female. She was very friendly but would occasionally escape her case and climb up the curtains and into the rod pockets. Happy YOTS!
This painting, “Ouroboros”, is a symbol dating back to ancient Egypt where serpent deities were often evoked to represent the formless disorder surrounding the world, but also the agent(s) of the world's periodic renewal.
In times of disorder, I try to remember that from chaos comes change and growth.
Watching:
The Recruit, Netflix - a fun spy vs spy story about a young lawyer who gets recruited into the CIA world and crazy stuff ensues. Worth watching, nothing deep or serious here. Created by Noah Hawley’s brother, Alexi.
Listening:
Eagerly anticipating the new Youth Lagoon (Trevor Powers) album, “Rarely do I Dream” due out Feb 21. In the meantime, listening to the singles “Football” and “Speed Freak.”
I have also been listening to the peppy stand-up-and-paint 2024 album by Foster the People, Paradise State of Mind, and a great country playlist on Spotify, “Country is Black.”
Reading:
I am re-reading “High Tide in Tucson” by Barbara Kingsolver. This book is a very soothing bed time read, it puts my mind in a calm place before sleep, which has been much needed lately.
I also finished “Cloud Cuckoo Land” by Anthony Doer, but unlike his “All the Light we Cannot See” I couldn’t make heads or tails of this one. As Emperor Joseph II is said to have told Mozart, “too many notes.” Maybe it’s just me.
ALSO:
🔥 I’m running a Backwards Fire Relief Fundraiser 👉 donate to an LA fire relief organization and take a free painting from my ETSY SHOP 🔥👈
So my besties, it’s time again for me to run. Share your condor painting title ideas 👆 come see me in Ventura if you’re around next weekend, and remember,
endings are also beginnings.
Out of chaos comes growth and renewal. I'm sure I misquoted but I like what you shared, a hopeful thought in these unsettling times. Also I really like Barbara Kingsolver and we be looking for the Tuson book. Sounds perfect for a calming distraction. Sorry no ideas for the condor painting. It's quite beautiful.