With thanks for an Artist Support Grant made possible by the North Carolina Arts Council, the Arts Council of Greater Greensboro and the Arts Council of Winston-Salem/Forsyth County, throughout 2024, I will be creating a new series entitled, Fields and Fairies: Medicine Paintings Through The Portal of Old Irish. These paintings are inspired by near-extinct phrases of old Irish. Each phrase offers medicine for understanding the inter-relationship between humans, land and spirit. This seedlings of this series began on a recent trip to the Dingle Peninsula where old Irish culture is lived and celebrated. I came upon the book, “Thirty-Two Words for Field” by Manchán Magan. This book put into words what I sensed being on that landscape. That people once held a far deeper relationship with the land, and through that relationship, they had entry into realms of peace and magic, which through Anglo-sized English, we now disregard as fantasy. There are lessons for living modern life available through the pages of meaning encoded in a single word of old Irish, now threatened by linguistic extinction. These paintings will bring visual life to this fading tradition and the medicine it offers.
Bealach na Bo' Finne/The Milky Way, 2023
24 x 36
Acrylic on canvas
Original Sold
8 x 10 matted and sign giclee prints + folklore description $30
This painting depicts the story of the river goddess Boann, the goddess of the River Boyne. Boann created the Boyne River when she disobeyed her husband and walked counter clock-wise around the Well of Segais. Because she challenged the power of the well, the water rose up and flooded the land to the sea, drowning her and creating the Boyne and she as it's goddess. It was said that the river and goddess are so bountiful and luminous that at night their light is reflected into the sky, forming the Milky Way. There is much more to the story of this land, the goddess and the meaning behind this phrase that translates as “The Milky Way.”
Foráil Seirce/Abundance of Love, 2024
30 x30
Acrylic on birch panel
$1500
This painting depicts The Dream of Aoghus Óg of Irish mythology. Aoghus Ó was the son of Daghda and Boann (goddess of the River Boyne). Aoghus Óg is the god of love. As the god of love, everyone loved Aoghus Óg. Because of that, he never knew longing—until one night, a woman of great magic and beauty came to him in his dreams. Night after night, they spent together for a year and a day. Each night his dreams were filled with her and their love, and in the morning she would be gone when he woke. Then one night, without warning, she did not come. Nor the next night nor the next. Another year and a day passed, and still, she did not return to him. Aoghus Óg was heart sick and could barely go on. Beside herself with concern for her son, the goddess Boann set out a search across the land for her son’s beloved. The search lasted a year, but the maiden was found by the Lake of the Dragons Mouth and she had taken the form of a swan. Her name was Cáer, and she was the daughter of a powerful Druid. She explained to Aoghus Óg that she loved him and wanted to be with him as well, but for the time being, she a swan. With that, Aoghus Óg turned himself into a swan, and the lovers flew to his palace on the River Boyne singing music together that so beautiful that anyone who heard it fell asleep for three days and nights.
Breacadh/Dawn of A New Day, 2024
Acrylic on birch panel
$1500
This painting depicts the gentle awakening to a new day and the awakening of the Earth in Springtime. It is also inspired by hope that comes with each new beginning in life in which we are born again.
Aíne/Mother of the Crone
Acrylic on birch panel
$1500
In this work we see the Earth Goddess, Aine, dancing around the bonfire at Beltane, the Celtic fire ceremony that is celebrated on May first, the half-way point between the Spring equinox and the Summer solstice. Aíne is Goddess of Summer, Abunance and Love. She is a Goddess of Fertility and Protector of women and children. She is the Goddess of the magical people, the Tuatha Dé Danann and is the Queen of the Síde. In this painting, Aine draws her power from the Sun for the fertility of land as she dances around the bonfire to the beating of drums played by the tree spirits. Aíne is a reminder to be a keeper of one’s own flame. As the Mother of the Crone, the fruits of Life she ripens will feed the wisdom of the Crone that is yet to be born.
