“Spirit of the Deer’s Cry”

 

    12”w x 13”d x 24”h

 

    Native Sandstone Base.

 

    Edition: 10

“The Spirit of the Deer’s Cry” - A lorica by St. Patrick.

 

This piece explores the similarities between the two cultures which have greatly influenced my work. The symbology of the Native-American peoples of the Southwest where I grew up and his ancestral Gaelic culture of Ireland.

 

As a mythological interpretation of St. Patrick, the elements in the sculpture share meanings to both cultures. “The Deer’s Cry” is a lorica, a prayer of protective invocation, it was written by St. Patrick and reflect Christian and pre-Christian symbology. As it relates to the Hopi, Navajo, and Apache peoples, these elements represent the spiritual symbols of their mythology and religion. As with all symbology, it depends on how the symbol is used.  Here the spiral in the form of a triad suggests the transformation from pagan religion to Christianity.

“The Winds of Change”

 

26” (h) x 18” (w) x 12” (d)

 

 Bronze and limestone.

 

 Edition: 10

 

 

The Legend and the Man.

 

Through our deeds we are defined. Columcille (aka Columba) was the son of the Chief of the clan of Northern Uí Naill’s. Choosing a spiritual life, Columcille became a priest. Borrowing a precious Psalter from Finnian, his Abbot, Columcille transcribed it overnight, a feet of miraculous proportions in itself. Upon returning the book, Finnian demanded the copy as well. Columcille naturally refused. After a heated argument over the incident, Finian took Columcille to the High Chief, Mac Diarmuid. The High Chief sided with Finnian stating “To every cow belongs her calf, to every book belongs its copy”.

 

Furious over the decision, Columcille got the backing of Clan Uí Naill whose army battled that of Finnian’s men at the Battle of  Cúl Dreimhne. Three thousand souls were lost. Either by remorse of forced Columcille left Ireland and relocated to Iona establishing a monastery. It was from this location he changed the cultural of the local people. Using Pictish symbols and traditions, he converted the ancient Picts to Christianity. The “broken arrow” symbol found in the Pictish culture of the ancient Scotland is used here as a metaphor for the victory of peace over a violent people.

 

People have always used animals as a manifestation of the spirit they feel closely represents their own. Columcille had bonded to an old horse who he considered his anamachara, spirit-mate and friend. The freedom, power, and temperament of the horse, known to the ancient Gaels as the horse deity, called Epona, captures the true spirit of St. Columba. The spirals for example, represent the ancestral emergence to this world and the journey through life to both the Native American cultures and the ancient Irish. As a Native American piece, it represents Ho-bo-bo, the Hopi Wind Spirit, who manifests his power into the whirlwind, yet to the Gaels it represents the legend of St. Patrick and the Trinity. The whirlwind is also one of the Gaelic Shape Shifters called the Puca.

 

The standing stone with a spiral petroglyphs represents the journey through life. With the temper of a whirlwind and the shape-shifting puca his emergence, spiraling from one world to the other was a violent one. It was from the symbol of the triad, as it represents the Great Father, the Son (sun), and the Spirit that gave birth to his new spirit. The Ogham writing, an ancient form of script, whose message can be deciphered with a Gaelic dictionary and an Ogham alphabet, represents the journey of the ancestors to the modern.

 

 

 

“The Winds of Change - A portrait of St. Columcille