On April 15, 2014, I was fortunate enough to witness the lunar eclipse on a perfectly clear, calm, beautiful night. As the earth's shadow moved across the brilliant full moon, I was profoundly touched. The next day I researched some Native American lore on the eclipse and found many interesting stories. One that truly touched my heart was the practice of Native Americans looking inward during an eclipse at their "shadow lives" and finding the life they should allow to emerge into the light as the full moon reappears. I have a bit of Cherokee in my background and have a strong Christain faith. For some reason this story of the shadow lives emerging into the light reflected how I see God gifting us with many talents and through our free will, we are allowed to choose the life that emerges into HIS light as we follow the path He has laid down for us. The more I thought about it, the more I wanted to represent this in one of my Spirit paintings. I hope you enjoy the results. The two panels will hang side by side to create one painting.
Panel 1: Shadow Lives, 18"x18", mixed media--scraped acrylic, watercolor, ink, pastel
Panel 2: Emerging into the Light, 18"x18", mixed media--scraped acrylic, watercolor, ink, pastel
Detail of Panel 1 showing a woman reflecting on her shadow lives which are represented by the shadows outside the circle of her reflection.
Detail of Panel 2 showing the shadow life that has emerged into the light of both the full moon and of the Heavenly light.
Completed "Spirit of the Eclipse" with the two 18"x18" panels together. You should be able to see the full cycle of the eclipse from left to right, the full "blood moon" at the top left of the second panel, the woman reflecting on her "shadow lives" at the bottom left of the first panel, the shadow lives outside her circle of reflection, and the emerged life surrounded by the Heavenly light as well as the second half of the eclipse toward the center of the second panel.
