SYMBOLS
SYMBOLIC DETAILS and EXPLANATIONS
Symbols play a huge part in my visual conversations Primarily A BIRD, A BALL and A CLOCK
THE BIRD is my guardian angel reflecting life’s blessings and challenges. As in nature or masked, the bird is the communicator of ideas bringing life’s challenges, issues and surroundings to the surface.
THE BIRD communicates and acts as a:
friend |companion | puppet | mediator | counselor | guide | inner spirit | conscience | interpreter | messenger |informer
On ground or inflight the bird observes:
stories | social needs | relationships | conscious and unconscious behaviors | life and death | achievements | inner talk |dreams | transitions | truth | innocence |refugee crisis
Oversees the need for:
compassion | play | forgiveness |reconciliation | change | dreams | protests and activism | good boundaries/fences | play | tolerance
Identifies, warns and mourns indicators of:
greed | rage | retaliation |violence | conflict | sexual and racial discrimination | climate change |white supremacy | power |abuse |lies | evildoing |viruses | confinement |sadness embarrassment | hate | globalism | refugee crisis | propaganda injustices
THE BALL: BALL/SPHERE/CIRCLE - offers a variety of symbolic possibilities: no decisive direction- moves different ways; makes a dotted line - a direction to follow; colored ball-an object of play, comfort and balance; balls and circles - come around, spin; yellow ball – warmth, the sun, white – purity, the moon; black ball, negativity, ostracizing behaviors; crystal balls – insights, projections, wishes, potential; and the moving, spinning and unraveling of the spiral.
THE CLOCK: Time spent, time honored, lost time, timely, out of time, wasted time, wanted time, keeping time, loathing time, Stalling time, Wishing time, End of time:
Seize the Day/Carpe Diem
LADDERS- the climb and fall, ability to reach beyond
WEIGHTS-MEASUREMENTS-CLAMPS -traps, concerns, restrictions, challenges, considerations
DRILLS - SCREWDRIVERS– getting into, around, through
DOLLS- recreations of humanity, games, play, innocence, action, fear,
BELLS- time for angels to get their wings; peace and freedom; time for action, time to come together, command or warning, beginnings/endings; commemorating events
KEY- potential to unlock, open, contain, secrets, openings
BOXES- boundaries, containment, confinement, isolation, secrete
ANCESTRAL CHARACTER REFERENCES- Ralph Waldo Emerson (philosopher), Agnes Sampson (witch), Henry Morgan (pirate), Henri Samson (Pilgrim on the Mayflower) all part of my (spoken, not thoroughly researched) ancestry
THE EPHEMERA and OBJECTS: Objects, scraps of paper, specific words and phrases were always part of my collection. The ‘Naschmarkt’ (flea market} and living in Vienna with all the old wooden and fixable tools inspired the start of the ‘Amalgamations’, like blending, merging, combining - the action, process, or result of uniting to make new.
SUBSTRATES: anything; new and used discarded papers, canvas, wooden plates, flash cards, playing cards (one of my favorite, especially the Queen of Hearts, Joker and Ace of Spades