Mixed Mythology
Mixed Mythology is a curation of animal myths from a variety of cultures, symbolically expressing stories of creation and natural phenomenon. Layered multiple myths narratives play out in circular motifs on wide earthenware bowls using a negative drawing technique (sgraffito). All bowls: 13x13x4.5 in.
The Seven Lambs of Tartary Speak for a Day
“The Seven Lambs of Tartary Speak for a Day” is truly “Mixed Mythology”, where stories regarding sheep equally share the circular format of the bowl. The title alludes to those tales, mixed here as one event. In the British Isles, there is a folk tale that at midnight on Christmas Eve, all sheep who face east and bow 3 times will be gifted with human speech until sunrise. The Irish goddess, Brigid, owned Cirb, the king of all sheep, including the seven magical sheep belonging to the sea god, Manannan. These seven sheep show up here as the “vegetable lambs of Tartary”, a cross cultural myth with many contradictory stories, including the shape of a fern rhizome and a misunderstanding about cotton plants.
The Year in Cows
The black cow depicts a creation myth from Norse mythology. The cow, Auohumla (Audumla in German lore), is creating the first man by licking him out of the ice. Clearly she is winter. A milking cow, standing in farmland represents spring. She has the traditional bell and flowers of the Swiss Alpabzug festival (which actually happens at the end of summer) but a flower crown feels like spring to me. The white summer cow, seen lifting off the surface, is one of the white cows in Wales that lifted off the land and disappeared when a farmer attempted to slaughter them. See my painting “The Last White Cow in Wales” for more. This last, autumn cow is sitting amongst the clouds, imagined as Kamadhenu, the Hindu Brahman cow deity. He is situated between the cow images of man’s interference with nature and nature’s creation of man. This is a combination of Hathor and Mehet-Weret, the Egyptian goddess and celestial cow, but who holds the earth, not the sun, between its horns.
Foxes Mate for Life
There are many myths about foxes in various cultures, most of them portraying the fox as cunning and secretive, ready to lead humans astray. There are fewer myths that describe foxes in a positive light, but I like those better.
The imagery on this bowl is fairly straightforward. These fox mates are fashioning a necklace made of foxglove flowers, as, according to Norse legend, the bell shaped flowers were said to “ring” a spell of protection against hunters. The pair is in the center of the forest, where they are said to provide spiritual and physical guidance for travelers.
The Innocent Become Doves
The title of this piece refers to Polish folklore: women who die when married turn into owls, and unmarried women turn to doves. Owls are considered to have too much yang energy in Chinese tradition and are associated with thunder and lightening. The central owl in this pieces regards the Welsh myth of Blodeuedd, the woman made of flowers who was cursed to become an owl.
The olive branches surrounding the bowl are a nod to the biblical story of the dove who brought an olive branch back to Noah on the ark, and to Athena, the Greek goddess who created Athens by striking the ground, thus sprouting the first olive tree and whose sacred animal was the owl.
The Three Hares
A design with three hares is one of the oldest artistic symbols in the world, ranging from early Buddhist cave temples in China to the British Isles and many times associated with the Christian trinity. In a multitude of cultures and stories, hares and rabbits are associated with the full moon, shown here at the center of the bowl, as well as with with fertility and femininity. Folklore with the rabbit or hare as a trickster abound world wide, and here, a thread of thorny briar roses surround the bowl in homage to the western tale, originally from African tradition , of the Br’er or Briar Rabbit.
The Raven Saved the Whale for the Osprey to Love
This bowl combines a few stories. One is the Inuit myth of Big Raven, who, after eating a forest mushroom in the moonlight (shown in a small aside), garners the strength to bring a beached whale back to sea. The other is a Native American creation story as to how killer whales got their white markings. The story tells us that killer whales were originally all black, but one fell in love with an osprey. The whale would jump as far as it could out of the water to be closer to the bird and the osprey would fly as low as possible to meet it. Eventually, they created a child together: a killer whale with osprey markings.
The Stabbed and the Drowned
This piece combines mythology from several cultures. From Arab culture, the white horse is the foal that was born in battle. To save himself and the mother horse he was riding, the soldier stabbed the foal, leaving it for dead. The next day, the foal showed up, very much alive, but with a red stain on its shoulder. In French culture, “Bayard” was a magical bay horse who understood human speech and could grow larger or smaller depending upon the number of riders. Charlemagne, the king, was unhappy with Bayard’s powers, so he tied a large stone around the horse’s neck and pushed him into a river. Bayard smashed the stone with his hooves and escaped to haunt the woods, where no one could capture him again.
The environment of each horse mixes Norse and Greek mythology. Hrimfaxi pulled a chariot of light from east to west, bringing in the day, and Skinfaxi ran west to east, with a bridle dipped in morning dew, leaving the dew on the earth overnight. The Greek mares of Laomedon could run over water and standing heads of grain. Abaster, one of four black steeds made of night could run at the speed of stars.