ART THAT CARRIES SPIRIT

Acrylic on Canvas/40"×40"

Sacred medicine, good medicine; thank you for this vision and this life.

Seven generations watch over the fire; as prayer songs yell to the heavens, "we want to live." In the warmth of the thípi, the dawn of the morning peeks through the smoke flap. Our prayers have been answered.

With the sun comes a new day to be who we need to be. Thank you for my family. I carry this spirit with me, I see this spirit within you, I feel this spirit in this room.

A gift is entrusted into capable hands. It's more than a feather. I carry it with honor, I feel its power. I'm humbled down by my brothers and sisters and the way they show up, the way they carry themselves.

The sun keeps painting the day. Has everything always been so beautiful? Or did I fall in love with life today?

Acrylic on Wood Panel 13"x13"

The Marakame embodies the spirit of Kayumari, the blue deer, who shares his energy with us. In his sacred pilgrimage, he stops at the sacred sites, giving offerings and praying to spirit.

He prays for water to come and feed the desert, his community, and grandfather Hikuri. In the last spot, the last stop, he sits to pray and give offerings when tiredness catches up, and he dreams a vision: Water floods his surroundings, and the desert comes to live.

Prayers lifted in a warm summer night. The deer tribe gathers around the fire, visions emerge, and melt the horizon. Dances and songs, the drum and the rattle, men and women intertwined in harmonious ceremony.

A vision dreamed months before is then manifested. Heart opening, vision giving, and energy realigning; chocoyotito, a beautiful concoction of ancestral medicines, sweetens up the sacred rite and guides the tribe through the fire.
Stories are told, family is created, and lives are changed in an unforgettable night of prayer.

Acrylic on Wood Panel 16"x16"

Awareness through food, awareness through breath, awareness of the mind, awareness of the soul, and awareness of everything. Five levels of awareness; three physical and two non-physical.

In this jungle journey, consciousness embodies the monkey mind hungry for fruit nutrition; it takes the shape of the trees and listens to their language carried by the wind that becomes breath. It becomes the mind that we forget is part of our physical body; rambling with thoughts and sensations, discomfort, and bliss.

In the jungle, consciousness is given space to play outside of body limitations, meeting for the first time face to face with the soul. Perceived by physical receptors but impossible to describe or be put into words. Souls play together and dance inside the Maloca.

And then everything melts, consciousness can't tell up or down, can't tell death or life, can't tell this dimension from the next. Telepathic communication opens with beings outside of its gaze. And it feels part of everything. It feels like it belongs. It begins to understand.

The jungle guardians watch and protect the whole process, as the serpent energy rises from the base of the spine. Parallel dimensions open up and split our awareness. The fire is burning brighter than ever.