Vision Quest

Fall 2005
Oil on Canvas
18” x 24”‍

This is the 9 of Air in Lane's Greenwitch Tarot:

This image was inspired by a dream told me by a dying friend. Our culture has huge fears about our own deaths and those of our loved ones. We can learn from our visions – here an owl (a harbinger of death for some Native Americans) coming in for a landing, a cock-eyed sun and an odd daemon. Is the human-self warding them off or inviting them in? Our fears are the stuff of our minds and thus of Air. They may be legitimate but when we believe and give them energy, they can take over and become terrorizing nightmares. Thus we have the option to rassle them to the ground and soothe them. To not give in to the hold they may have gained on us.

What are your fears? What stuff of your imagination and mind games inhibits you, controls you? Can you find ways to ignore or talk back to them? The call is to find the courage to do so ASAP.  

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Original Website Blurb

Inevitably, being part of community means dealing with the deaths of people we love.

Dwight Clark was a beloved art high school teacher who saved many a jaded alternatively-minded student during his years at our local NeahKahNie High School. His classroom, graced by his own works in progress, was always a beehive of creative activity. In 1997 he organized and inspired several of our graduating young people (including our older son Skye) to make traditional vision quests. Three days alone on Neahkahnie Mountain without food was a powerful experience both for the students who went and the parents who held vigil in base camp.

Dwight’s death from cancer in 2005 was a huge blow to us all.

I was privileged to be a part of his transition process. As I worked on him, burning Traditional Chinese Medicine moxabustion cones on his stomach meridians, he told me about the visions he was having. In one, three strange spirit creatures came to him to tender courage and healing. A mere shadow of his former physical self, Dwight could no longer paint. So after his passing I was inspired to do one to honor him.