Mapping Migrations
The original “mappings” were created by the Aboriginal peoples of Australia. For thousands of years, their Dreamtime Paintings were were symbol-maps, telling the stories of their history, mythology and wisdoms.
I was inspired by the concept and the aerial perspectives of the Dreamtime Maps. For me, they offered the perfect scaffolding of an idea. I was seeking for my “migrating” botanical hybrid creatures. See more on this below.
Sizes: from 9 x 12” to 22 x 30” or larger, depending on the images and size of map.
This virtual gallery holds a small sampling. To see more, or for more information and price points, please contact the artist.
Ancient Moth Traveling
Autumn Pods Traveling on Air
Flying Over Vermont
Maine Blueberry Hybrid
Quantum Physics
Seed Pod Hybrid
Star Dust with Poem
Summer Moth
Notes on Mapping Migrations
The Mapping Migrations were a natural evolution from the Seed Pods and Botanical Hybrids.
I was reading Barry Lopez's book, Arctic Dreams. In it, Lopez writes about the Lakota, who, much like the Australian Aboriginals, believe that a spiritual landscape exists within the physical one that we perceive. Along this line, the Navajo, also believe that each landscape holds its own sacred order. Further, many of the world’s peoples believe in the living soul/ spirit of both salient and non-salient beings.
With an interest in anthropology as well as art history, I had discovered the Dreamtime - landscape - mappings of the ancient Australian Aboriginal peoples. Their Dreamtime Paintings are visually powerful and date back thousands of years. The paintings and their symbol languages, were passed down from family to family, over generations. The paintings were part of a larger cultural oeuvre, which included ~ dance, song, and mystical story-telling ceremonies. Europeans (never having seen such abstract colorful works before) referred to them as being “from the Dreamtime”.
Inspired by these symbolic concepts of Landscape, I began to imagine my hybrid creatures migrating. They would fly, or be carried along by wind currents to find new territory with hospitable habitats. During this time, I had come upon a trove of the most gorgeous old (thick paper) sea charts. These nautical maps became the anchor point for my new work. I began thinking and drawing from an Aerial perspective. They continue to evolve.
The Symbolic Echoes - A Personal Link
About a year into this work, I realized that the Mapping Migrations were literally symbolic echoes of my own personal sojourn. I was “migrating” too. Losses had occurred in my life from 2011 to 2014; these were difficult years. I needed to bring closure to my old life. Moving to Maine, became my plan and my dream. For three years, (2014 to 2017) I worked towards it. During this time, I traveled back and forth form Connecticut to Maine. I had found an old house that needed renovating. Built in 1847, she needed me and I needed her. During this time I was inventing the Migrations. I lived in liminal spaces, and crossed over slowly. Sometimes, it wasn’t real, sometimes it was. Now, I refer to this period as my voyage of a thousand days and thousand nights ~ for interestingly enough, it took me exactly three years and three months to complete my journey to Maine. Whereupon, I landed safely on these rocky shores.
Techniques & Media
For the Mappings- Migrations I wanted to show (physical) layers of time and space, as they happen and occur (in spiritual ways). I began with encaustic for layering, but it was too dense. I wanted more transparency and more detail. After some experimentation, I discovered vellum (paper). Vellum provided great strength and transparency. However, it could not withstand wet media. So, at this point, I had to stop using the luscious layers of watercolor painting. I tried colored pencils. The creamy pencils worked beautifully on the smooth velum.
Lastly, in collaboration with my (best ever) framer, George, we (he) developed a fusing technique that would adhere the layers of penciled vellum drawings to the paper sea charts and maps.