Grandeur of Thistles

Grandeur of Thistles

I saw images of thistles frequently while in Scotland, and for good reason-- the thistle is actually the national emblem of Scotland.

I like how this humble, resilient weed is celebrated. In fact, there are many myths and symbols devoted to it. (Google it, it is quite interesting!)

Many stylized depictions of thistles, such as this finial from a railing, serve as a good reminder that the common can be exquisite and the everyday full of grandeur. 

Size: (h x w) 16" x 8"

Media: Phototransfer on maple

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Illumination

Illumination

The sunlight is glaring through a window in the Great Hall of the Edinburgh Castle in Scotland.  I overlaid this with a celtic cross from Iona, allowing the light from the window to illuminate it.

Size: (h x w) 16" x 20"

Media" Digital photography

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Remnant of Devotion

Remnant of Devotion

On the Isle of Iona I searched for the Hill of Angels, a place where St. Columba would go to pray that is now considered sacred. It is easy to miss, you can barely find it on the map. It is just a little hill located inside a fenced-in pasture on someone’s farm. 

I climbed over the fence and headed up the small hill.  I sat in quiet near some stones that had been placed as humble offerings by others who had ventured to this site before me. It felt sacred. 

While sitting on the peaceful little knoll, I saw movement out of the corner of my eye. Some small sheep were making their way in my direction! They lingered and begged for attention. Oddly enough, this felt like a most appropriate greeting on the Hill of Angels.

Size: (h x w) 10" x 20"

Media: Digital photography

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Shrouded

Shrouded

When I arrived on the Isle of Iona it was blanketed in a hazy fog.  The first place I visited was the Nunnery ruins, which poked mysteriously through the haze making it feel very sacred and still. The haze really heightened my experience of the ruins. I visited again later after the fog had lifted, but it was never quite the same without this shroud of mystery.

Size: (h x w) 20" x 16" framed

Media: Digital photography

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Enchanted

Enchanted

I am not sure I have ever been so surprised by beauty as when I saw this meadow carpeted with millions of purple flowers. It was on the Isle of Mull, in Scotland, and I had just pulled over to wander around an old churchyard in Gruline and was just getting back on the road to keep on schedule when the mass of purple drew me in. I couldn't resist! 

It is the kind of experience where you want to breathe it in deeply and savor it for the future. (Like what we do in Ohio on an unseasonably warm day, when there is still threat of cold and snow). If only we could fully conjure up these moments again so vividly! 

Size: (h x w) 16" x 24"

Media: Digital photography on canvas

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Stirring

Stirring

At the National Museum of Scotland, I was intrigued by a sign about ancient ritual offerings in water that noted: “Watery places were favoured for making offerings.  They were seen as boundaries between the human world and the world of the gods, where contact could be made.”  There is something about water and its glittery, fluid movement that touches my soul deeply. (This may have something to do with the fact that I grew up in the Great Lakes state!)

On the way to catch a car ferry, I took some photos of Lake Lubmaig. The water was so peaceful and quiet. I combined this with a shot of the Iona green marble altar in the Iona Abbey. In this piece, the altar and water fuse into a permeable “watery place”.

Size: (h x w) 20" x 16" framed

Media: Digital photography

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The Wait

This piece is from my two-person Tangled Memories exhibit.  The exhibit explored my experiences with my Dad's Early-Onset Alzheimer's. (He was diagnosed in his early 50's, when I was still a teenager, and died in 2000 at the age of 65).


The Wait

Waiting. Sitting alone at McDonald’s waiting for my Dad.

I used to meet my Dad at McDonald's for breakfast. I had moved out of the house and I looked forward to these times to connect and catch up. As time went by, he increasingly forgot to meet me. His forgetting at that time did not yet have a label, an explanation. All I knew, as I sat there waiting, was that he had forgotten me, again. I was alone.

Recently I sat alone again with my breakfast in a local McDonald's to take photos for this piece. The empty seat still served as an icon of Alzheimer's.

Size: (h x w) 48" x 36"

Media: Mixed media on maple

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