The North American indigenous folktale of the Three Sisters is told from Mexico to Montana, and teaches the ancient agricultural technique of planting corn, beans and squash together because each provides some benefit to the others’ growth and health. The Three Sisters celebrates a Sisterhood of mutual thriving characterized by reciprocity and interdependence: each Sister’s uniqueness is celebrated and recognized as important to the health of the whole. I love how planting and harvesting these Three Sisters nourishes our bodies as well as our spirits and communities.
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Caribou Sky, inspired by a folktale about the caribou and their connection to the seasonal cycle of the sun which draws loosely from several ancient stories from Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia, including many elements from indigenous Sami folklore. Here photographed in the process of being carved.
Summer 2023 Newsletter
Sharing several new handmade prints in my shop! Each print contains a precious folktale from the past, a mythos, reminding us of our ancient and intimate kinship with the wild, expressed with a multitude of endearing voices of the earth. Whether it is the sound of clanking antlers, or the mischievous pecking of a black crow, or the whisper of a tiger’s whiskers these heartwarming stories lyrically weave us into the circle of life and remind us of our extraordinary human imagination.
Read MoreThe Owl Lover: When the Wild Courts Us
An endearing love story about a rare white Great Horned Owl who falls in love with a human woman, retold by Joseph Bruchac in his book Wabi: A Hero’s Journey. This Abenaki folktale suggests that nature is courting us, that there is a a romance taking place. . .a precious mythos from ancient times about the intimate and tender relationship between humans and the wild.
Read MoreThe Old Woman Who Weaves the World
Like the concept of Yin and Yang, the folkloric archetype of opposing forces that create the cosmos, weaves its way into so many different landscapes and cultural traditions secretly behind a veil of different stories and visual motifs . . yet here it is hidden in plain sight, in the White Mountain Apache folktale of The Old Woman Who Weaves Together the World and the Black Crow who pecks at the loose ends and unravels it again. What wisdom might this folktale offer us in rethinking our relationship with the wild?
Read MoreFreedom With Feathers: the Power of Folklore
A reflection on the folk wisdom offered in The Magical Adventures of Pretty Pearl by Virginia Hamilton filled with beloved characters from African American folklore. How folklore and folk tradition bring a small community fugitives into deep relationship with the wild, and how enchantment and magic serve as a source of psychological resilience and practical survival in the face of unimaginable hardship.
Read MoreThe Smoke Tree: Elder & Transgressor
Though some may see its delicate pink puffs of clustered flowers as a sign of fragility, the Smoke Tree is far from frail. Living between sidewalk cracks, in stone walls and quarries, and in the rocky foundations of houses, the smoke tree teaches us about resilience and transgression. The smoke tree is an elder who shows us how we, too, can resist and transgress what society tells us we cannot do.
Read MoreWoodcutter & Tiger Brother
This Korean folktale about a woodcutter who discovers that a tiger is his long lost brother is a story about a relationship transformation: from one of hunter and prey, to one of intimacy and kinship characterized by interdependence, reciprocity and mutual respect. It is about recognizing and embracing the other within, the wild within the Self.
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