Thursday, October 07, 2004

Overview: Common Symbols in Water Color & Pencil (WCP)

Much of my work contains recurring symbols. The origins and meanings of the symbols are described below, rather than repeated in each presentaion. The information presented here is gathered from personal experience, coursework and studies and is additionally quoted from various sources within my bibliography.

Wings/Butterflies:
Throughout my life I have always felt an affinity with butterflies, their gentle floating and amazing coloring, the transformation from caterpillar, the rich variety of symbolism, metaphor and mythology, continue to fascinate and inspire me.

“The butterfly is one of the oldest images of transformation. No one who, as a child, has waited for a caterpillar to turn into a butterfly can forget the moment when the earth bound caterpillar becomes the beautiful winged creature that flies away. Some 8000 years ago, the caterpillar and the butterfly suggested that there were two aspects to a single life form: one was ‘born’ out of the other. Thus it became one of the oldest images to suggest the regeneration of life from an outworn form and, analogously, the survival of the soul after the death of the body.”
(The Goddesses and Gods of Old Europe – Marija Gimbutas – page 186)

“Psyche was the Greek word for both soul and butterfly, dating from the belief that human souls became butterflies while searching for a new reincarnation. The mythical romance of the maiden Psyche, beloved by the god Eros, was really an allegory of the soul’s union with the body and of their subsequent separation. The Celts also believed in fly-souls and butterfly-souls which, like bird-souls, flew about seeking a new mother. It was thought that women became pregnant by swallowing such creatures. In Irish myth, Etain took the form of a butterfly for seven years, then entered the drinking cup of Etar (Etarre), who swallowed her, and so brought her to rebirth. In her second incarnation, Etain married Eochy, the High King of Ireland. It is still said in Cornwall that the spirits of the dead take the form of white butterflies. It is also said in Mexico and Siberia. Butterflies were soul symbols in the Far East as well as Western Europe. The Chinese considered a jade butterfly the essential emblem of love, suggesting a wedding of souls. The most appropriate gift for a bridegroom to give his bride in China was a jade butterfly.”
(The Woman’s Dictionary of Symbols and Sacred Objects – Barbara G. Walker – page 415)

“…Early Greeks believed human souls could occupy flying insects while passing from one life to the next. The belief was not forgotten. At Carcassonne in 1329, an amorous Carmelite monk was accused of witchcraft for hiding love charms in women’s houses. It was charged that he also called up Satan and sacrificed a butterfly to him, in symbolic offering of the soul.”
(The Woman’s Dictionary of Myths and Secrets – Barbara G. Walker – page 826)

The butterfly continues to be a metaphor for transformation, reincarnation and romance, globally in modern culture references:

“Butterfly – Rebirth in higher form; transmutation of energy. The beauty that comes from trusting the process of growth through all its ups and downs, emerging triumphant in new awareness.”
(The Dream Book – Betty Bethards – page 79)
“Social success, romantic success, and/or domestic happiness is forecast by a dream of these gaily colored creatures.” (The Dreamers Dictionary - Lady Stearn Robinson & Tom Corbett – page 72)

“Butterfly – The soul; immortality. As changing from the mundane caterpillar, through the state of dissolution, to the celestial winged creature, it is rebirth, resurrection. Also, like the double headed axe, a symbol of the Great Goddess. Celtic: The soul; fire. Chinese: Immortality; abundant leisure; joy. The butterfly with the chrysanthemum portrays beauty in old age; with the plum, it is longevity. Christian: Resurrection; its stages of development are life, death and resurrection. Sometimes shown in the hand of the Christ Child. Greek: Immortality; the soul; the psyche; also Psyche in Greek art. Japanese: A vain woman; a geisha; a fickle lover. A pair of butterflies is conjugal happiness; a white butterfly is a spirit of the dead. Maori: The soul.”
(An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Traditional Symbols – J.C. Cooper – page 27-28)

These modern associations get their foundations in the above referenced cultures and eras, however, less known in mainstream society is that throughout history, in ancient cultures, the butterfly can now be recognized as being associated with the Great Goddess and the cultures that worshipped her, as is evident through the arts and crafts uncovered:

“On a Late Minoan vase from Mochlos, the Deity as half-woman/half-butterfly is depicted with a stemlike columnar body, upraised arms, and butterfly wings…on a Late Minoan pithos from Pseira, the central butterfly has widespread wings sectioned by bands of parallel lines…floral motifs and bull heads with butterflies like flowers between the horns…the symbolic context is further enhanced by bands of butterflies, circles, spirals, concentric circles, and double spiral flowers…”
(The Language of the Goddess – Marija Gimbutas – pages: 23)

“Scenes of regeneration and hymns to rising life are portrayed on Late Minoan sarcophagi…features panels of sacred horns with rising butterflies, shells, and buds…it is a declaration of the triumph of life, in which plants, animals, and sea life participate.”

“The butterfly was one of the many insectomorphic manifestations of the Goddess in whose hands was the magical transformation from death to life.”
(The Language of the Goddess – Marija Gimbutas – pages: 23)

“The emblem of the Great Goddess in its origin has nothing to do with the axe; it antedates the appearance of metal axes by several thousand years. In the second millenium BC, because of their increasing importance axes were made in imitation of a butterfly (therefore double bladed). When finally the butterfly became the double-axe, the image of the goddess as a butterfly continued to be engraved on double-axes. Moreover, on painted Minoan vases there is frequently an anthropomorphic image of the goddess having wings in the shape of a double-axe, an echo of the goddess’ epiphany in the shape of a butterfly.”
(The Goddesses and Gods of Old Europe – Marija Gimbutas – page 187)


Spirals:
Spirals have been found on every continent in ancient sites. We have recently discovered that our universe is formed in a spiral, our DNA in spiral strands, indeed it is likely our bodies form in a spiral from the imbilical cord. It would seem that instictivly we feel and want to illustrate a connection with this.

"A highly complex symbol which has been used since paleolithic times and appears in pre-dynastic Egypt, Crete, Mycenae, Mesopotamia, India, China, Japan, pre-Columbian America, Europe, Scandinavia, and Britain; it also appears in Oceana, but not in Hawaii. It variously represents both solar and lunar powers,; the air; the waters; rolling thunder and lightening; it is also a vortex; the great creative force; emanation...a manifestation of energy in nature."
(An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Tradtional Symbols, page 156)

Additionally it is believed that the spiral symbol inspired the creation of labyrinths.

Nature:
Nature is the inspiriation of our culture, our ancient ancestors viewed the cycle of nature, earth, the seasons, the moon, stars, and sun and learned to survive and create a foundation based on these observations. Today, many of our cultures are removed from nature and only glimpse its beauty and sacredness occassionally. Throughout time, people have been called to reproduce what they see and to try to understand their place on the world by relating to the environment around them.

Sun, Moon and Stars are common natural symbols in my work. The sun has many metaphors attached to it, but is most often referred to as a metaphor for the masculine and the moon as feminine.




WCP - Tree


Watercolor, Apprx size: 8.5 x 11 - Prints for sale $15.00 each

Artists Notes:
I would love to be sitting in this tree, feeling the warmth of the sun and the slight chill of the breeze on my face and watching the butterflies soaring beneath me. I find that I sketch trees often, and examine them frequently when out in nature. I love them, they are often majestic, strong and beautiful. This is not based on an actual tree, just my imagination of a tree in the sun, on a breezy day.


WCP - Two Sides


Watercolor - Approximately 8.5x11 - Prints for Sale $15.00 each


Artists Notes:
In truth, there are many sides to me, but in this painting I represent the ancient and the feminine. One side is a curvy young woman with long flowing hair, natural, sexy, beautiful. The other, the wise serious woman with wild ethereal hair, magical, spiritual and sacred. Nested inside watery wings, it had an Atlantean feeling to me. Maiden and Crone, Peasant and Priestess, Physical and Spiritual.

WCP - Conception


Watercolor - Approximately 8.5x11 - Prints for sale $15.00 each


Artists Notes:
I awoke one morning and truly felt reborn. Overnight, I had experienced a transformation. I painted this in only a few moments, sketching first in watercolor pencil and then painting in watercolor. Watercolor as the medium felt wholly appropriate as the painting feels very womb-like to me, and also representative in color and form of the sea. The moon, an egg, or bubble floating gently within something larger and more powerful, yet still protected. The joining and spiraling inside, representing the coming together of self, the birth of an idea, the beginning of new life.

WCP - Wings


Watercolor - Approximately 8.5x11 - prints for sale $15.00 each


Artists Notes:
I believe that most little girls (and probably boys too) dream of having their own wings. I often imagined that mine were deeply colorful, sheer, shiny and very beautiful. The soul seems restricted in this physical form and weighed down, wings remind me to lighten up, to think of angels and faeries. One of my favorite mediations involves imaging yourself to be flying over a beautiful hillside and I like to imagine that these wings carry me. See Butterfly notes above in Common Symbols post.

WCP - Spiral Sunset


Watercolor - Approximately 8.5x11 - prints for sale $15.00 each

Artists Notes:
Watercolor is great for sunsets! You can melt all of the colors just like the sky. It doesn't matter if you are a terrific painter or a beginner, paint because its fun, paint because its good for your soul! I like the spiral sun here, it lends itself to the idea of the sun disappearing at sunset, and blending into all the colors of the sky. See the Spiral notes in the Common Symbols post above.