Love, Sweet Love

"Love, Sweet Love" - mixed media on gallery-wrapped canvas, 36" x 36".   Ready to hang.  Available on Artfinder.

What the world needs now is love, sweet love
It's the only thing that there's just too little of
What the world needs now is love, sweet love,
No not just for some but for everyone.
                                 - Jackie DeShannon

Contemplating eclipses and the perfect timing of this one today.  In the Lakota tradition, the eclipse is called a "fire cloud".  According to one source, "a great creature in the sky swallows the sun, and the sun...with his headdress, burns through the cloud...and is victorious."   A time for quiet meditation, and asking for the return of the sun.  Not just in the sky, but the light and love within ourselves.  What a perfect pause in a world of heightened emotions and unrest.

In Navajo traditions, viewing the eclipse, or even being outside and partaking of activities in it, is taboo.  Instead, it is a time for reflecting on the sun and the moon.  Their beliefs stem from watching animal behavior during eclipses, which was to stop eating, huddle up and rest.  Some schools in western U.S. are closed in respect for this tradition.

​The Batammaliba people in Africa believe the sun and the moon are fighting, and people are to join together and ask them to stop.  It is a time of resolution and healing of old feuds.  Hmmmmm.  I think they are onto something.

This piece is one I've painted versions of again and again.  Something mystic and magical to me about this girl in the sky, whether she is reaching for stars or for love.  It is a large piece this time, three feet in each direction.  A piece of art from the heavens on a day when the heavens perform art.
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